TOWARDS 

' ^ : HEALTH 



h . rch, B.Sc.,M.R.San.I. 




Class H ^^^4 

Book »M&(o 



PRESENTED 1JY 



TOWARDS RACIAL HEALTH 



TOWARDS 
RACIAL HEALTH 

A HANDBOOK ON THE TRAINING OF BOYS AND 
GIRLS, PARENTS, TEACHERS & SOCIAL WORKERS 

I 

BY 

NORAH H, MARCH, B.Sc, M.R.San.I. 

WITH A FOREWORD BV 

J. ARTHUR THOMPSON, M.A. LL.D. 

PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF 
ABERDEEN 



NEW AMERICAN EDITION 

with an Introduction by 

EVANGELINE W. YOUNG, M. D. 




NEW YORK 

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 

6S1 FIFTH AVENUE 



Published 1919 
By E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 



f^ 



All Rights Reserved. 



Gift 
Publisher 
WV 8 (919 



Printed in the United States of America. 



AUTHOR'S NOTE 

My sincere thanks are due to Major Leonard Darwin, 
President of the Eugenics Education Society, for reading 
and discussing with me the two chapters on Education 
for Parenthood, to Dr. Stanley Hall for permission to 
quote at length from his book, Aspects of Child Life 
and Education, to Mr. and Mrs. Whetham for permission 
to reproduce a chart from their valuable book, The 
Family and the Nation, and to Miss Lawson for the 
interest and care she has taken in the illustration of 
this book. To Dr. 0. V. Darbishire and to Mr. B. D. 
Lawson I am indebted for some notes on Seaweeds. 

Parts of the manuscript dealing with the more purely 
medical aspects of the work have been read by several 
distinguished members of the medical profession ; to 
these I take this opportunity of expressing my thanks 
for giving me the benefit of their authoritative opinion. 
In particular, my gratitude is due to Dr. Eric Pritchard, 
who read and considered a large part of the manuscript, 
Chapters II.-V. In other ways, too, I am indebted to 
several members of the medical profession for help 
they have from time to time so generously given me. 

To gather together the facts concerning this many- 
faceted subject has entailed much reading of many 



vi AUTHOR'S NOTE 

authors. Some of these are mentioned in the Biblio- 
graphy, others whose works are of a more advanced 
or specific nature are not included in that list of books, 
but to all I am grateful. Finally, my profound thanks 
are due to Dr. C. W. Saleeby for his kindness and 
. support in reading the proofs and for several valuable 
comments and suggestions, and to Professor J. Arthur 
Thomson for doing me the hoaour of contributing the 
Foreword, 

N. M. 



FOREWORD 

By J. ARTHUR THOMSON 

I feel it a privilege to write a short introduction to 
Miss March's excellent book. It is a piece of work 
that was needed and for which many will be grateful. 
We give instruction to young people in regard to food 
and exercise, but * sex ' we scarcely mention. This 
cannot be because it is too sacred, for we give religious 
instruction ; nor because it is something to be ashamed 
of, for we know that it is the physical basis of what may 
be the finest thing in life ; nor because the conspiracy 
of silence is working well, for it is not. The reason why 
we do not face up to our duty in the way of sex educa- 
tion and education for parenthood is that the task 
is so difficult, and hence our welcome to Miss March's 
book. For she writes with the convictions won by a 
wide experience as a teacher, and with the scientific 
competence gained by studying the subject for many 
years in all its aspects. What is prominent is the 
equal emphasis which she lays on the biological approach 
to sex instruction and on the ethical note which must 
be sounded sympathetically when personal relations 
are approached. The absence of platitudinarian talk 
and the firmness of her treatment of the facts of the 



viii FOBEWOKD 

case will meet with the approval of all discerning 
readers. Miss March does not propose any doctrinaire 
scheme, but she offers suggestions which can be adapted 
to different circumstances, for it seems to be clear that 
education in racial hygiene must be graduated and 
differentiated by the teacher's discretion. One reason 
for this is that the subject is still in an experimental 
stage, and another is that we have not yet sufficiently 
consulted the child. We have not been humble enough 
and scientific enough to go far as yet in finding out 
what the person most concerned thinks about it all. 
But towards this also Miss March has made a notable 
contribution. I have pleasure in recommending to the 
unprejudiced her wise and sympathetic study. 

J. A. T. 

University op Aberdeen. 



CONTENTS 



CHAP. PAGE 

Introduction to the American edition . . xi 

I. Introductory . . . .1 

II. The Physical Development of the Child . 16 

III. The Mental and Emotional Development of 

the Child . . . . .28 

IV. Care of Children . . . . .50 

V. Supervision — Psychological Aspect . . 76 

VI. Nature Study in the Service of Sex Instruc- 
tion . . . . . .97 

VII. Further Aids towards Understanding the 

Biology of Sex . . . . 144 

VIII. Ethical Training . . . . .165 

IX. Education for Parenthood . . . 191 

X. Education for Parenthood— Some Suggestions 211 

XI. Social Safeguarding . . .231 

APPENDICES 

I. Some Suggestions for Parents on how to 
answer Childish Questions, and how to 
prepare Children for Puberal Changes . 247 

II. Special Hygiene for Girls . . . 264 

III. Physiology of Human Reproduction . . 268 

IV. Care of Animals — and Some Notes on Plant 

Life referred to in the Text 



Bibliography 
Index 



275 
312 
319 



INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION 
By Evangeline W. Young, M. D. 

One of the most urgent needs in the educational 
system of this country is for the right kind of 
eugenic instruction for young people. Parents, 
teachers and social workers are realizing more and 
more that the attitude of the past in ignoring or 
dealing casually with this subject hfis been wholly 
inadequate either as a protection from social dan- 
gers or as a preparation for parenthood. 

It is a startling as well as a significant fact that 
it has taken nothing short of a world war to make 
us realize how serious has been our shortcoming in 
this respect. Statistics made in connection with 
the Army Draft of 1SL7 brought to light appalling 
facts regarding the physical condition and morals 
of the young men of this nation. While war con- 
ditions served to bring these facts to our attention, 
we must remember that war itself was not respon- 
sible for them to any great degree. This deplorable 
state existed before the war, and it is we, who 
have had the responsibility of instructing our young 
people, who are largely to blame. 

Now that the fighting is over, these conditions 
still exist, and are encouraged and fostered by or- 
ganized interests whose business it is to profit from 
every form of social evil. It is high time for 
parents and all who are coming into close contact 

XI 



with young people to open their eyes and to employ 
every possible means to counteract these evil influ- 
ences, 

Parents have too long been unconscious of the 
low tone which has pervaded the literature, drama, 
films and music of the past decade, and have failed 
to sense the social dangers accompanying the in- 
troduction of pagan forms of dancing. The business 
interests which sell various forms of amusement to 
young people know exactly how to use this material 
to their own best advantage. The resulting sexual 
ideals and habits of boys and girls are in many in- 
stances disastrous. The social worker who strug- 
gles with the problems of juvenile crime sees that 
by far the greater number of tragedies during this 
period are due to the fact that youth has not been 
sufficiently fortified against these evil influences. 

It is the parent's problem and sacred duty to win 
and keep the confidence of the child from earliest 
infancy. This confidence is especially necessary 
in regard to all matters pertaining to sex, as other- 
wise a distorted and harmful interpretation is 
received from other sources. It is here that this 
book will be found invaluable. If parents wish to 
offset the corrupting influences which are every- 
where about the child of today, they must be will- 
ing to take the time necessary for preparing and 
giving such instruction early in life. Miss March 
has studied and understands children, and appre- 
ciates the necessity of adapting one's instruction 
to the individual child. Many an unprepared 
parent will find this book of the greatest help in 
meeting her own problems and in finding the best 
methods of approach to her own child. 



Many teachers, although not required to give 
class instruction in these matters, feel greatly the 
need of assistance in meeting individual problems 
arising in school life. Over and over again Miss 
March has demonstrated her sympathetic under- 
standing of the difficulties of adjustment which 
boys and girls undergo during adolescence. Those 
teachers who have forgotten their own youth, and 
who regard with wonder or impatience the insta- 
bility of the emotional nature of pupils during these 
years, will derive much profit by a close study of 
the chapter on Supervision. 

Personally, I feel a debt of gratitude to Miss 
March because of the help which I have received 
from her book. I have been instructed both in 
matter and in method from its pages ; encouraged 
by her fearlessness, inspired by her practical ideal- 
ism, and cheered by her optimism. It gives me 
great pleasure to know that its usefulness is to be 
extended by the production of an American Edi- 
tion. 



510 Commonwealth Avenue 
Boston, Mass., June, 1919 



TOWARDS RACIAL HEALTH 



CHAPTER I 

Introductory 

" As Man is educated by his Father, God, so must the 
child be educated by his father, the adult man. . . . 
The child will develop into the adult, and he cannot 
too soon be initiated into the life which, as the adult, 
he will have to lead. The process of educating the child 
is not merely analogous to the process of i saving ' 
the man. It is the vital part of it. For childhood is 
the time when human nature is most easily moulded ; 
and the bent that is given to it then is, nine cases out of 
ten, decisive of its ultimate destiny." l 

The twentieth century is well spoken of as the 
" Century of the Child," for this saying of Mr. Holmes 
is the embodiment of twentieth-century thought on 
child-life — thought, the outcome of knowledge, concern- 
ing the welfare and importance of the child which has 
expressed itself in a multitude of reforms. New laws 
have been made for the protection of child-life, old laws 
amended ; during the first thirteen years of the century 
no less then twenty-four Acts of Parliament dealing 

1 What Is and What Might Be, by Edmond Holmes, pp. 43, 44. 
Published by Constable. 

r 



2 INTRODUCTORY 

with the protection of children were passed, and in 
1913 a special division of the Home Office was created 
to deal with questions relating to children. This 
century has seen a great advance in medical science 
concerning the health, nutrition, and development of 
the child, and from this knowledge of the child in health 
a new phase of the medical task has developed. Much 
of the ill-health of children and adults has its origin in 
infancy and little-childhood ; the great effort now put 
forth is to watch over the child to see that all is being 
done to secure perfect growth and health, to detect 
the first signs of weaknesses, and prevent, so far as 
is possible, their obtaining a hold. 

And so we have a multitude of Health Societies, Child 
Welfare Associations, Schools for Mothers, and so on — > 
societies carried on mostly by voluntary effort, and 
through their agency much knowledge concerning the 
rearing and management of children is making its way 
to the untutored section of the public. Mothers and 
fathers are beginning to make much more of a 
thoughtful study of the needs of child-life than they 
used to do in the past, when children were brought up 
" by rule of thumb." 

Of education in the narrow sense — school education — 
teachers are only too well aware of the many theories 
put forward, tested, dismissed as impracticable and 
useless, or accepted and adopted as beneficial. People 
air their views in speech, lecture, and writing ; others 
discuss. Some workers put into practice first, and still 
other devotees to reform show the correlations ; they 
find the bearings, view other aspects of the question 
and investigate the relation of other circumstances, so 
that, often, what first appeared to be a comparatively 



INTRODUCTORY 3 

simple problem is found to be a complex of many 
factors, the value of each of which is to be known and 
understood in its relation to the main theory. And 
in time, from all this activity of thought, practice, dis- 
cussion, and association, a policy emerges, is adopted, 
finds a roothold, and becomes established. The whole 
matter is summed up, the central idea and correlated 
factors are gathered together into a whole, and we are 
placed in a position of intellectual security so far as' 
our present circumstances and knowledge allow. 

In fact, everything goes to show how greatly we are 
realising that the child is the central fact of a nation's 
progress. What a nation comes to be is evidence of 
what its children have been trained, allowed, and en- 
couraged to be. A nation's life goes on for unnumbered 
generations, the child's life but for one generation. Yet 
each generation is the parent of the next, and it rests 
with this generation to secure the well-being and progress 
of the next — a fact that is being more and more acutely 
realised. 

Here the problem of the child is with us still. 
" . . . Childhood is the time when human nature is 
most easily moulded ; and the bent that is given to it 
then is, nine times out of ten, decisive of its ultimate 
destiny." How, then, are we to teach and train the 
boys and girls of this generation in order that they may 
become, worthily, fathers and mothers of the next ? 
Evidently, if we wish to determine the bent in the 
right direction, we must begin early. Childhood is the 
sowing-time. Nature herself has appreciated this 
great truth, though we may have been slow. Has she 
not stirred the childish thoughts into ripples of inquiry ? 
How early do children realise there is a mystery they 



4 INTRODUCTORY 

must solve ! " A little child shall lead them." But 
we have been slow to recognise the lead and to follow. 
And because a generations-long habit of ignoring or 
evading the early questions concerning the coming of 
new lives into the world has brought in its train many 
complexities and difficulties, to present-day parents 
this preparation of the child for their adult responsi- 
bilities may seem a difficult problem to tackle. Indeed, 
society itself and social life generally have in many ways 
tended to add to these apparent difficulties, so that now 
we find the task of fitting children for their possible 
future responsibilities is not only concerned with the 
simple story of the transmission of life from one genera- 
tion to another, but that there are many associated 
problems with which we must concern ourselves in order 
that we may fully appreciate and valuably perform our 
task. 

The task seems to present itself naturally in two 
phases. First, and most important, it is to convey to 
children a knowledge of the facts and laws of human 
life transmission, and to lead them to realise " all the 
grandeur and the beauty hid in birth," and from these 
beginnings to work, training the mind and the soul, 
so that parenthood will be understanded of them and, 
when the time comes, nobly undertaken. This is the 
upbuilding or positive phase of our task. 

And the other phase is this. Great gifts bring great 
responsibilities in their train, and great risks of loss and 
damage ; this greatest gift which mankind owns, the 
gift of sex, must be safeguarded, protected from evils 
which may assail it. Society is much more elaborate 
and complex in its workings than it used to be in the days 
of our forefathers, and with this vast advance in com- 



INTRODUCTORY 5 

plexity has come increase in social problems. Some 
of these problems are concerned with the spread of 
vice, of disease, of misuse of powers, of failure to achieve 
the noble and upright. And it is from these evils that 
the children must be protected. That is the second, 
the negative, phase of our task. The power that Man 
possesses, in common with " all creatures that on earth 
do dwell," but which has reached its fullest blossoming 
in Man, is the supreme power, the exercise of which 
carries with it the greatest responsibilities. Each 
organism is the trustee of Life, and carries with it 
the power of passing on that Life to another genera- 
tion. 

Living things are governed by the Law of Progress, 
and Man has achieved the greatest progress. In obeying 
the Law of Progress, living creatures have improved — 
we say ' evolved ' — their powers and their attributes 
have evolved. The processes by which a living creature 
produces new living creatures are known as the pro- 
cesses of c reproduction,' or the ' racial ' processes, and 
creatures are led to perform this duty towards their 
race by the impulse and device of 'sex.' In Man, who 
has reached the highest steps in the path of progress, 
we find the highest development of all organic processes, 
powers, and attributes. So that in regard to the racial 
processes, and in regard to the methods by which the 
creature is impelled to the performance of these racial 
processes, i.e. in regard to sex and all its manifestations, 
we find in Man the highest developments, the most 
elaborate and the most difficult to understand. So 
also, in Man, do we find them fraught with the greatest 
dangers and risks. And in Man, too, is the progress 
towards maturity of function the most intricate, won- 



6 INTRODUCTORY 

derful, and at the same time the most painstaking work 
of Nature. 

Hence it is that, if we are to feel ourselves confident 
and competent, we must make ourselves well aware 
of what we have to do, of the forces which work for us 
and of those which may be against us. 

1. We must understand the nature of children, their 
thoughts, their feelings, the hidden mental and emo- 
tional processes, especially in regard to those concerning 
sex. We know that everything concerning sex is in- 
timately bound up in the development of man from 
childhood to adulthood, and is wholly destined for good. 
That is the force we must understand, and must protect 
from possible wrong direction or injury. 

2. We must know, too, the ways in which the body 
grows and is to be maintained in health ; a knowledge of 
the physical development of children will aid us greatly, 
linked up as it is with mental development ; then shall 
we be able to exercise intelligent supervision over child- 
life. 

3. Then we should know how to talk to children and 
how to teach them so that we may present the facts 
of birth and parenthood in the most acceptable way, 
presenting them in such a way that the physical facts 
are made clear, and at the same time the wonder and 
the sacredhess of the laws governing sex and parenthood 
are revealed in all solemnity and reverence. 

4. Boys and girls growing up into manhood and 
womanhood — ' adolescents ' as we call them in a 
comprehensive term — present a special claim on our 
attention. They have many problems of their own, 
concerned with health of body and health of mind. 
The load that the adolescent has to bear may frequently 



INTRODUCTORY 7 

be a heavy and difficult one, but its weight may be 
lightened and the journey towards adulthood accom- 
plished in comparative serenity and ease if those who 
have the guidance of youthhood in hand know how to 
inspire, how to mitigate the difficulties, and how to 
help on towards the goal. 

5. To that end, we must inform ourselves of the 
possible risks and dangers which may beset the path of 
children and of adolescents. Many of these dangers 
may lie in connection with health, mental and bodily, 
others have to do with morals, and though some may 
arise through accidental discovery, most of them are due 
to some detrimental social experience or happening. 

6. And, finally, because we hope to fit our boys and 
girls to become worthy fathers and mothers in their 
turn, because we hope to instil a keen sense of racial 
responsibility, we, ourselves, must know something of 
the relation of the individual to the race ; we must 
understand some of the factors in race improvement 
and some of the causes of race decay. Then we may be 
able so to weave into our care and guidance of child-life 
a thread of gold, a thread which shall make its way 
from the fabric of our own lives into the fabric of theirs, 
a thread that is known as the Ideal. 

The training of children is no light task to be under- 
taken thoughtlessly and unpreparedly. Only if we are 
sure in our own knowledge shall we be able to carry 
conviction in our teaching and to avoid mistakes. We 
have to remember that Nature begins very early to 
formulate her plans and to lay the foundations of her 
structures while the child is yet very young. There is 
a long preparation period, every step of which must be 
accomplished with certitude and with safety if adult- 



8 INTRODUCTORY 

hood itself is to be perfect. Moreover, children vary 
very much ; no two children have exactly the same 
way of looking at things, have exactly the same dis- 
position, exactly the same environment or upbringing. 
That which is understanded of one with ease, is an 
incomprehensible mystery to a second, and does not 
exist at all to the intelligence of yet a third. 

Again, children come under many influences ; it is 
impossible to hedge in a child so that it comes under 
no influence save that which we may desire. As far as 
lies in our power, though, we may see to it that the 
influences under which they come are good, and for the 
rest, beyond our control, possible harm may be pre- 
vented if the personality is so developed and fortified 
as to be immune to the influence of deteriorating circum- 
stance and experience. 

The two great factors which may be made to influ- 
ence strongly the life of most children are, of course, 
the home and the school, and one can foresee great 
possibilities for the good of the child when these two 
forces are working together in perfect harmony of aim 
and spirit. Many children, however, are so unfortu- 
nately situated that their home influence counts for 
little, if any, that is good, and may be even antagonistic 
to good ; these children are more greatly dependent 
upon the help their teachers can give them. 

Then, too, we have to consider the influence of their 
companions and playmates, the influence of their leisure 
occupations, and, in the days when school is over, of 
their work. The problem of playtime, of the leisure 
hours, is fraught with poignant import. Many are the 
efforts of social workers, inaugurating and conducting 
boys' clubs, girls' guilds, seeking to satisfy youthhood's 



INTRODUCTORY 9 

natural craving for excitement and interest by healthy 
occupation of the leisure hours. Some children, young 
and older ones, are fortunate enough to come within 
the sphere of religious influence and, impressed, to be 
retained within its fold. 

In this book, therefore, which is intended for adults, 
it is aimed to show how these influences under which 
the impressionable years of infancy, childhood, and 
youthhood are spent may work together for the good of 
the children ; how one influence may help and stimulate 
the other ; how one may make good the deficiencies of 
the other, if need be. 

Let us look for a moment at what may be called, for 
the sake of brevity, sex instruction. How is it to be 
given ? Following Nature's own lead, as shown by the 
early questions of the little child, we must begin to 
unfold the story of birth during the years of little- 
childhood, and after the fact of motherhood has been 
grasped, gradually and unobtrusively, very beautifully, 
the story of human parenthood should make its way 
into the child's mind. The simplest and most reason- 
able way in which this may be done is by making use 
of the wonderful array of example and illustration 
provided by the living plants and animals about us, so 
that the child becomes familiarised with the processes 
involved in the transmission of life from one generation 
to another, and becomes acquainted with the right 
words and terms in which to clothe the facts, all by 
study of simpler types than the human. Some children 
have ready, alert, mental activity, and quickly associate 
one fact with another, realising the whole story in a 
quick, vivid flash of insight. Other children have 
thoughts that come ponderously and slowly and need 



10 INTRODUCTORY 

many more facts and details to help them up to the 
goal. 

If the facts of human parenthood are to establish 
themselves firmly in the young mind and if, moreover, 
they are to establish themselves in the right attitude 
and draw unto themselves the right and not undue 
proportion of consideration, they must be shown in 
relation to the whole of organic life ; the laws of repro- 
duction govern the whole of the kingdom of living 
things — Man is not alone on the mountain : he is, 
though, at the summit. It will be evident, therefore, 
that, in the school, by a careful arrangement of Nature 
Study, helped by keeping school pets and home pets, 
studying the habits and life of plants and animals, much 
may be done to make clear the fact that certain laws 
and processes obtain in essentials, throughout living 
creatures, so that when details of the human processes 
are later referred to, in intimate confidence between 
parent and child, the child may, as it were, say to 
itself, " I seem to have known that all along." 

Sex instruction, however, cannot faithfully be regarded 
as complete if it stops short at this point, for we are 
only at the beginning. The very object in giving these 
facts of information on human parenthood is that the 
child's mind may be prepared to accept further in- 
formation as time goes on, and may be ready to ap- 
preciate the meaning of coming changes — the changes 
of body and mind which accompany the dawn of 
adolescence. This is simply the first step to be accom- 
plished in direct education for parenthood. There are 
many more to follow. 

Side by side with the incoming knowledge of the 
physical facts concerning birth and parenthood, a grand 



INTRODUCTORY 11 

ethical concept must make its place. This important 
phase of training is even more important than training 
in knowledge only, but its full magnitude of possibility 
and its potential influence for promoting integrity can 
only be adequately realised and obtained when we 
have a knowledge of physical facts to go upon. The 
best preparation for life's responsibilities combines a 
knowledge of the facts of sex, and the important part 
it plays, with a deep appreciation of its power of work- 
ing for the good of humankind. Therefore must it be 
our great effort to bring this truth home to our boys 
and girls, so that their thoughts and conduct may be 
kept on a high plane, and that they may mould their 
aspirations towards the best and the noblest in desire 
and in attainment. 

Nature has decreed that her races shall be carried 
on, and in entrusting the work of producing a new life 
to the effort of two individuals, she has made certain 
that her purposes be carried out, by bringing the two 
individuals together, making them mutually appreciative 
of the influence and attraction of one another. This is 
the Law of Sex Attraction, which has reached its highest 
expression in Man. The great power of Love which 
brings man and woman together in a lifelong comrade- 
ship and union, combining as it does the forces of physical 
attraction with the mighty forces of the soul, is at once 
our greatest strength and our greatest weakness. It is 
the mainspring of all that makes the greatest joy in 
life — of marriage, home life, parenthood, filial love. 
Let us see to it that the ideal of Love which we foster 
in the minds of children is so clearly illuminated that 
they may be truly sensitised to its influence and may 
never mistake its shadow for its substance. For if the 



12 INTRODUCTORY 

way behind lies strewn with the dead bodies of past 
experiences, of dissipations, of wasted, misspent sex 
energy, Love itself, when it comes into the life, will be 
tempered with regret that its fullness has been depleted 
by the unwisdom and ignorance of the past. 

To turn now, briefly, to some suggestions for a practical 
policy, we must recognise that, ideally, all the intimate 
personal details of sex instruction should form part of 
the general confidence between mother or father and 
child. At the same time, we must recognise that many 
parents at the present day have not had the benefit of 
such wholesome instruction themselves in their youth- 
hood, nor have they, as a general rule, had much acquaint- 
ance with Nature Study. Hence they may feel themselves 
unable to carry out this part of their responsibilities 
without first receiving help. And again, there may be, 
nay, are, parents who are not sufficiently thoughtful 
upon the needs of child-life in this respect. They must 
be brought to realisation. And, lastly, there are parents 
who are totally unfitted to give the right bent to their 
children's thoughts : the welfare of their children will 
be better served in other hands. 

It is wise, therefore, for us to consider this matter of 
educating the parents themselves, and one may suggest 
that this may be done in considerable measure by 
organising meetings of parents, where, under the sym- 
pathetic address of one who entirely understands the 
feelings of parents and the welfare of the child, their 
duty and its manner of performance may be made 
plain. Should such a meeting be arranged by the 
school (and through the schools, the greatest number 
of the nation's parents may be reached), opportunity 



INTRODUCTORY 13 

could well be taken to show how much the school can 
do to help, to reinforce, supplement, and extend the 
work of the home. For at school, where we have the 
full advantage of good pedagogical methods, nature 
study helps towards an understanding of the racial 
functions and processes ; physiology and hygiene may 
incorporate the racial organs in their scheme ; mother- 
craft, domestic economy, and needlework supply a 
practical note in the training of girls ; literature, history, 
Bible knowledge give many opportunities of making 
plain the way of the Ideal. Nor is this all ; so much 
may be done during the school years to direct the 
inclinations of boys and girls along lines of healthy 
employment and to cultivate their taste in regard to 
occupations of work and of play ; for when the days 
of school are over, these occupations of work and of play 
come to be of prime importance in their influence upoh 
boy and girl life. 

Nor is the school the only way of reaching the parents 
and of helping them. We have onljr to think of the 
many social and semi-educational organisations — 
Women's Guilds, Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, Church 
Societies, Boys' Clubs, Settlements, and so on — to 
realise that here is another great army of workers, 
who may reach out a helping hand to parents, and who 
may join their effort with the other forces in the field. 
Indeed, it may frequently fall to the part of the club 
leaders to be ready to make good what should already 
have been done, and to put forth their effort both 
directly and indirectly, to safeguard the boys and girls 
of their district. 

Though much may be done collectively in connection 
with general information on the biology and physiology 



14 INTRODUCTORY 

of sex, and in connection with ethical training, we must 
realise how very important it is that the child's sensitive- 
ness and sense of privacy should not be wounded ; and 
that each child, boy and girl, should feel that there is 
someone to whom they may go in case of difficulty ; 
where there is anything they do not understand that 
they may always know that their one counsellor, whether 
it be parent or some wise parent-substitute, will be 
ready to help them and to make things clear. This is 
why it is so greatly important that the guides of child- 
hood and youth should be fully informed themselves, 
so that they may be ready to answer the questions which 
may come. To some children a word or two conveys 
volumes, and they are easily satisfied ; with others 
there is almost no limit to their demands, but these 
demands must be satisfied, not evaded. Then, again, 
some children are naturally refined in their nature 
and ideas, while others tend to look at life vulgarly and 
coarsely. But that must not deter us from the effort 
to help. Can we do nothing to give even the roughest, 
most neglected, and vulgar young girl of the slums 
such a knowledge of herself and such an appreciation 
of her powers of womanhood that she would vigorously 
resent, with ail her natural crudeness and roughness, any 
attempt to infringe her self-respect or despoil her virtue ? 
I have, in the chapters which follow, attempted to 
give a survey of both the positive and negative aspects 
of this phase of education and training of child-life, in 
order that adults may put themselves in possession of 
information which may help them to contribute their 
part, whether it be as parent, teacher, church or social 
worker. A complete education may, it seems, only 
be achieved through the agency of all, so that each 



INTRODUCTORY 15 

should be prepared to recognise his opportunity and to 
seize it, dealing with it in his own particular way. 
No two people are likely to have exactly the same views, 
nor are they likely to have identical experience, and any 
effort they may put forth will inevitably be coloured by 
their personality. How greatly important it is, there- 
fore, that the instructors of youth should not only know 
their subject, but should have the right attitude towards 
it, so that they may be able to speak with ease, with 
dignity, and with reverence ! 

" Each mind has its own method." * Each personality 
casts its own glow. And because I am humbly aware 
of these truths, my aim must be to give a brief account 
of facts, to offer a few suggestions, to compile some details 
which may help on the practical side, and thus endeavour 
to gather together in one volume items of information, 
hitherto scattered, which bear upon one another and upon 
this subject of education. 

1 Emerson, Essay on Intellect. 



CHAPTER II 

The Physical Development of the Child 

The student of child-life recognises that development 
of the child passes through certain phases, physical 
and psychological, in more or less definite sequence. 
It is customary, therefore, to identify certain periods 
of childhood, according to the condition of mental and 
bodily growth which characterises them. These periods 
may be indicated as being from birth to seven years of 
age, constituting the first period of childhood ; from 
seven years up to fourteen, this constituting the second 
period of childhood. At the age of fourteen, certain 
striking changes in bodily and mental development 
manifest themselves, showing that childhood is passing 
away, that the dawn of youthhood has come. These 
ages — seven years, fourteen years — are not absolute 
punctuations in the development of the child ; there is 
a gradual transition recognisable to the tutored adult 
intelligence : moreover, the ages given vary very con- 
siderably in different children ; some children enter 
youthhood at an age earlier than fourteen and others at 
a later age, and the average age for girls is somewhat 
lower than the average age at which boys manifest the 
bodily changes indicative of this new phase of develop- 
ment. Not only are there numerous individual varia- 
tions, but the rate of development varies in different 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 17 

races : some writers are inclined to ascribe this varia- 
tion to the effect of climatic conditions, but serious 
objections to this climatic theory exist, and other 
writers, recognising these objections, incline to the 
theory that the differences are due to racial peculiarities. 
Then, too, within the limits of the race, social condition 
is sometimes held responsible for the variation in rate 
of development. It is said that in girls of the upper 
classes the beginning of puberal development (as the 
transitional stage is called) is attained at an earlier age 
than in girls of the lower classes, but here, again, no 
definite substantiation in the form of statistics is avail- 
able as confirmation. It is thought, by some authori- 
ties, that girls living in towns mature, on the average, 
earlier than girls living in the country : this is another 
point in connection with rate of development upon 
which opinion is not yet unanimous. 

The period of puberal development is of several 
years' duration ; as will be seen more fully later, the 
bodily changes and mental transformations take place 
gradually, and when puberal development is complete, 
the child is fairly launched into the next epoch — 
adolescence. 

In order that the full significance of these periods of 
growth be understood, and in order that their bearing 
on the subject of sex education may be appreciated, it 
is necessary to know something of the organic and 
psychic changes and conditions which are involved. 

Nature makes very sure of her essential parts being 
strong and her essential functions being firmly estab- 
lished. When we open a flower-bud, perhaps a crocus 
bud just making its way from the corm or a fuchsia bud 
hanging unopened on its stem, we find the stamens and 



18 DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 

the pistil — the racial organs — already well developed 
in form and size ; indeed, they are, relatively, consider- 
ably more advanced in development than are the other 
less-important parts of the flower. This careful provision 
towards ensuring the perpetuation of the species is seen 
to be made by animal types also, that part of the 
organism upon which the racial functions devolve being, 
in the processes of organic development, very early 
distinguished. So that we are not surprised to know 
that in the human child at birth the racial organs are 
already present and well formed, the uterus, for example, 
being at birth about at the same stage of development 
as it is in a girl of nine. To return to the illustration of 
the flower. After it has opened, the corolla enlarges and 
unfolds, the tint of the petals is deepened and its mark- 
ings strengthened, the nectaries grow in size and become 
ready to produce their attractive secretion. During 
this time of what may be called ' bodily ' or ' somatic ' x 
growth, the stamens and pistil have grown comparatively 
little ; they have experienced a period of rest during 
which the bodily parts are rapidly developing to that 
state of perfection which makes -for the certainty of 
fertilisation taking place. Then, rapidly the racial organs 
complete their development and become functional. 
So, too, in the child, after birth there is a period of arrest 
in the growth of the sexual organs, during which period 
bodily development proceeds rapidly and regularly. 
From birth to four years of age, growth in girth is 
characteristic, as it is also from eight to ten years of age, 

1 It is usual to distinguish the constitution of an organism as 
' germ-plasm * (that tissue which is destined to reproduce and to 
become the beginning of the next generation) and * body ' or * soma,* 
the whole organism which surrounds the germ -plasm. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 19 

while the two periods during which growth in height is 
relatively predominant are from five to seven and from 
eleven to fourteen years. In general, the rate of growth 
of boys exceeds that of girls, except during the second 
period of growth in height, the average height of girls 
between the ages of eleven and fifteen years being 
greater than that of boys during the same period, though 
at all other times the reverse is found to be the case. 

During the first period of childhood, beyond the 
differences in the reproductive organs, there is com- 
paratively little difference between the sexes. Towards 
the end of this period, however, and continuing during 
the second period of childhood, differentiation becomes 
more evident. Allowing for individual variations, it 
may be said generally that the hips become broader 
and the body more rounded, in proportion, in the girl 
than in the boy ; the girl's hair tends to grow at a more 
rapid rate and the characteristic development of the 
breasts begins to take place. In both sexes towards 
the end of the second period of childhood, the axillary 
and pubic hair (i.e. the hair in the armpits and between 
the hips) begins to grow. The boy's shoulders become 
broader, his body more angular, his muscles stronger 
than those of the girl, and towards the end of the second 
period of childhood a marked change takes place — the 
' breaking ' of the voice — while in girls we have the 
beginning of the costal type of respiration, that is to say, 
the ribs tend to rise and fall conspicuously in breathing. 

These obvious changes in bodily form and function 
are indications of internal changes which are in process, 
and may be appreciated, according to their degree of 
manifestation, as heralding the approach of puberty. 
The wise mother will be, by them, led to understand how 



20 DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 

far on life's way her little daughter or her young son 
may be ; so that, guided by these physical signs and 
also by her sympathetic understanding of the mental 
processes which are taking place at the same time, she 
will know when she should forewarn her boy or her girl 
of the changes which are likely to take place. 1 

The new phases of mental development and the 
differentiating bodily characteristics which, along with 
others less evident, arise during these years of later 
childhood are spoken of as " the secondary sexual 
characters " ; they are, as has already been pointed out, 
evident in the girl at a relatively earlier age than in 
the boy. They are indicative of the activity of the 
racial organs. 

These organs have two functions, the one being to 
produce and discharge from the body the racial elements 
(the testicles producing ' sperms ' in the male, the 
ovaries producing ' ova ' or ' eggs ' in the female), and 
the other being the production of an internal secretion. 
The racial organs are glands, and as such they have 
the power of extracting substances from the blood, 
from these substances forming, through the activity 
of part of their cellular substance (the interstitial cells), 
what is known as an ' internal secretion.' They share 
this power with other glands in the body. The thyroid 
gland, that mass of modified lymphatic tissue which 
lies in the neck at each side of, and across, the windpipe, 
in addition to its function of destroying toxic products 
(poisonous matters produced in various ways in the 
body), produces an internal secretion which exerts a 
specific influence over the body, aiding the processes of 
general nutrition. The pituitary body, a small outgrowth 
1 See Appendix, " Suggestions for Parents." 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 21 

of the brain, the function of which has only comparatively 
recently been understood, also is the seat of an internal 
secretion which aids and regulates the general meta- 
bolism of the body and the development of its various 
organs, particularly of the skeletal system. Other 
glands too, the liver, the adrenal glands, etc., are known 
to produce secretions which exercise in various ways, 
and towards various organs, an exciting or controlling 
effect, this stimulating effect being due to the presence 
of certain chemical substances called by Professor 
Starling ■ hormones/ present in the secretion. It 
seems as if we may regard the glands as a wonderful 
organic control, stimulating, regulating, and aiding either 
another gland or some other part of the body, in develop- 
ment, in establishment, in perpetuation, and in function- 
ing. Each gland has its own specific function to carry 
out, and in several cases may have more than one 
function. 1 

The sexual glands, then, produce an internal secretion 
containing chemical substances, ' hormones.' This 
fluid finds its way into the blood-stream, circulating by 
this means round the body, supplying the necessary 
stimulus for the formation of the secondary sexual 
characters, both physical and mental, nourishing the 
reproductive organs, and stimulating the nervous zone 
attendant thereon. It is held to be strongly energising 
in its effect. An example from everyday life will serve 

1 For a concise survey of recent work in connection with the 
glandular seoretion, the reader will find an article entitled " Internal 
Glandular Secretions and their Influence on the Causation of Disease," 
by Dr. R. Murray Leslie, in the Clinical Journal, 13th August 1913, 
useful. The Human Body, Keith, Home University Library (Is.), 
also refers to the various internal secretions and their effective control 
over the body. 



22 DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 

to bring this out clearly. The ox is a male -creature 
which had its racial organs destroyed in its young 
days ; the bull is left undisturbed organically. The 
fiery, powerful, excitable nature of the bull is in great 
contrast with the placid, slow-going nature of the ox, 
which has evidently suffered in loss of energy and power 
through the process of castration. The male and 
female chickens of the domestic fowl are all alike, so 
far as external appearances go, for the first twenty to 
thirty days of their existence, but after the thirtieth 
day the essential cock-iike characters begin to develop 
in the male, continuing to differentiate themselves 
more and more widely from the hen type, the wattles, 
the comb, the distinctive plumage all becoming quite 
clearly marked. If a young cock has been deprived of 
its testes quite early in life (before the thirtieth day), 
it fails to develop a comb, wattles, the typical plumage, 
and vocal powers of the cock. If the removal of the 
sexual organs takes place later, the secondary sexual 
characters may be more or less developed, though, of 
course, the racial function is inhibited. In fact, it has 
been shown that the development of the secondary 
sexual characters begins with the appearance of inter- 
stitial cells of the racial organs, and this appearance 
and consequent functioning of the interstitial cells 
takes place considerably before the development of 
the racial elements. 

In man, observation leads us to know that the internal 
secretion of the testes and the ovaries begins to circulate 
in the body as early as seven or eight years of age, 
leading to the development of the secondary sexual 
characters, though the essentially racial function of 
those organs is not assumed till much later, and if by 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 23 

any means this internal secretion be prevented from 
finding its proportionate destination, if, for example, 
referring to the functions of this secretion (stimulus of 
latent secondary sexual characters, physical and mental ; 
nourishment of sexual glands ; stimulating the nervous 
zone of these glands), an undue proportion is directed 
towards the stimulation of the nervous zone, then the 
other functions are liable to suffer, according to degree, 
from the over-direction of internal secretion towards 
the one destination. This, however, is leading to a part 
of the subject with which I shall deal more fully when 
considering the problems of education, just emphasising 
here that it is highly important that we should under- 
stand and appreciate the role of the internal secretions. 

Let us turn our attention now to the second function 
of the racial organs, the formation and liberation of the 
reproductive elements. As has already been pointed 
out, during the first period of childhood and the early 
part of the second period, the racial organs grow very 
little in size ; but towards the end of the second period 
of childhood, growth of these organs is extremely rapid, 
and the end of childhood is marked by the coming into 
activity of the germinal cells, sperms in -the form of 
spermatic fluid are liberated by the testicles, ova develop 
and are released from the ovaries. 

The spermatic fluid finds its way from the testicles 
into two small reservoirs, and when these become sur- 
charged, a natural overflow of the ' semen ' (as the mixed 
secretions of the testes and some related glands are called) 
occurs. This discharge or ' emission ' is accomplished 
by muscular action of the penis, causing ' erection ' of 
that organ, and usually occurs in normal healthy boys 
during sleep to the accompaniment of more or less 



24 DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 

vivid dreams. If an emission occurs during the waking 
hours, the boy is conscious of high nervous stimulation, 
accompanied by pleasurable feelings in this region. 
These emissions usually begin to occur in boys over 
fourteen, and may take place in the natural course once 
a week or once a fortnight. A more frequent occurrence 
is usually abnormal. 

This period of* puberal change, during which the 
body is becoming accustomed to its new functioning, 
extends over one or two years. It may be said to have 
begun when the voice begins to break, and to be estab- 
lished by the time the voice has permanently fixed its 
lower register. 

In the girl, during the period of puberal development, 
the racial organs grow rapidly : the uterus enlarges 
and alters its proportions ; the ovaries become racially 
functional, liberating at four-weekly intervals an ovum 
or egg. This ovum finds its way into the oviduct 
(Fallopian tube), thence passing down to the uterus 
(or womb), accomplishing the journey in from eight to 
twelve days, and, in the ordinary course of events, is 
lost. This is very easy, it is so small, being only 
y^ of an inch in diameter. We have to remember, 
however, that the ovum is a potential new creature, 
and that if it meets with and is fertilised by a sperm in 
its journey from ovary to uterus, a new life has begun. 
In the human type that new life is nourished and 
develops for a period of nine months within the maternal 
body. As an ovum is liberated every four weeks, so the 
body may be called upon to provide material for food 
and growth of a new creature every four weeks, and 
must be in a condition to allow of that extra expenditure. 
All the nutrient material for the developing embryo 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 25 

which is fixed to the wall of the uterus is derived from 
the maternal blood-stream. Hence we see that if the 
ovum be not fertilised, there is a surplus blood supply, 
which is under these conditions not required, and it 
makes its way through the small blood-vessels of the 
uterus, bringing with it the lining of that organ. This 
periodic discharge from the uterus, known as the 
menstrual flow, is a perfectly natural function of the 
body, and should not be regarded as an ' illness.' Its 
first occurrence manifests the end of childhood. During 
the two years after this, physical and mental changes 
take place quickly ; the change from childhood to 
youthhood is complete. These years of puberal develop- 
ment are, however, a period of physical instability, of 
psychological change ; they are years, therefore, during 
which the growing girl, as well as the growing boy, 
needs careful supervision in order that adjustment to 
new conditions of life may be safely achieved. The 
body comes under the reign of periodic action ; slow 
accumulation of surplus material, a corresponding 
concentration of this towards certain organs, and a 
sudden release of it constitute a rhythm of physical 
condition, and because the psychic condition is dependent 
upon physical condition, the nervous functioning being 
inextricably interwoven with the other functionings of 
the body, a corresponding psychic rhythm is established. 
In fact, Dr. Stanley Hall goes so far as to say, writing 
of periodicity in women and girls, " Every day of the 
twenty-eight she is a different being." And though a 
woman is not actually conscious of a day-by-day varia- 
tion, we can appreciate the physical foundation upon 
which Dr. Stanley Hall's comment is based. 
While these important changes are taking place in 



26 DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 

the racial organs, and are becoming established as part 
of the regular organic performance of the body, other 
changes in growth and development are occurring. 
There is a steady progress of muscular, skeletal, and 
organic development during the years from fourteen 
to twenty-five, not, though, at exactly the same rate. 
Growth in height is more rapid in girls than in boys 
between the years of eleven and fifteen, after which 
increase in height is comparatively little in girls, and 
more rapid in boys till about eighteen or nineteen years 
of age. After this period of rapid increase in height, 
in both sexes a slow, slight increase takes place till 
about twenty-five, or; in some cases, after this. In- 
crease in height is due to increase in length of bone, 
and as the muscular system does not develop in bulk 
in exact proportion with the skeletal development, the 
body becomes lanky ; muscular looseness and lack of 
co-ordination lead to the ' awkwardness' that is so 
characteristic of the young adolescent. In girls, besides 
increase in height of the skeleton, certain alterations in 
shape take place, the pelvis becoming wider and deeper, 
leading to a widening of the hips. Skeletal develop- 
ment, however, in due course, lessens its rate, and the 
body supplies are more devoted to increasing the size 
and strength of the muscles ; in girls, a considerable 
development of fat takes place, leading ultimately to 
the fully rounded contours of womanhood. Internal 
organic growth keeps pace with external development, 
though, here again, during adolescence, growth is not 
exactly proportionate ; at one period one organ specially 
makes progress, at another time another organ is ex- 
periencing its period of rapid development ; the heart, 
for instance, increases considerably in size, while the 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD 27 

blood-vessel system alters comparatively little in 
capacity, thus leading to greater blood pressure. This 
fact may be held to account largely for the increased 
exhilaration and excitement, for the intense activity, 
which are so characteristic of youthhood. In girls par- 
ticularly, the complexion becomes clearer, the hair and 
the eyes become brighter. The boy gradually becomes 
merged into the man, gaining height and breadth of 
figure, hardness of bone, enlargement of the larynx, 
with its correlative lowering of the voice-pitch, and he, 
in the average case, reaches maturity at the age of 
twenty-five, while the girl's complete development is 
attained a year, or perhaps two years, earlier. 

This brief survey of development would be incom- 
plete without a reference to another punctuation, the 
end of the reproductive period. When the ovaries 
cease being productive of ova, they shrivel in size, and 
the various functions connected with ovulation cease, 
more or less irregularly. This period is known as the 
' climacterium,' the ' menopause,' or the ' change of 
life,' and usually covers a number of years between 
forty and fifty. In men, the cessation of reproductive 
activity is less emphatic in its manifestation, but may 
take place about the age of fifty and later — being much 
more variable in time of occurrence than in women. 
This period of change is, in both men and women, 
a period of physical instability, and often of many 
physical disturbances, when considerable care of the 
health is necessary to ensure a safe transition towards 
the years of senescence when " the almond tree shall 
blossom and the grasshopper be a burden." 



CHAPTER III 

The Mental and Emotional Development op 
the Child 

Let us now turn to the psychological aspect. As the 
years of life from birth to maturity reveal a constant 
progression of physical change, so also do they manifest 
a serial of mental development. The infant is conscious 
of little beyond dissatisfaction ; he realises and gives 
expression to his realisation when his bodily comfort is 
interfered with ; his primal need is food. Instinctively, 
he demands this in baby-way, if it be not forthcoming 
as soon as the instinctive craving, hunger, awakes. 
If he is hurt physically, or if his body organisation is not 
working in perfect accord, he becomes conscious of dis- 
comfort or pain, and again reacts to the consciousness. 
It is only by degrees he becomes conscious of environ- 
ment, able to distinguish between that which is ' self ' 
and that which is i not-self.' And through the months 
and years succeeding birth, his mental development 
is one long, ever-widening, ever-deepening experience 
of environment, learning to distinguish and appreciate 
his surroundings, animate and inanimate, slowly 
coming to understand, in some degree, the part they 
play in his well-being. The first years of childhood 
pass in happy guilelessness of utter absorption in ' self ' ; 
it is only during the end of the first period of childhood 

28 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 29 

and the subsequent years that a slow incoming of 
personality leads him to realise that the ' not-self ' is 
predominant and that the * self ' has a minor part to 
play, that the world was not made for himself, but that 
he, as a person, has to fit into his place in the world. 
Self-consciousness is past the dawn ; it is spreading over 
the sky. 

It is curious to realise how very little of what we 
experienced before the age of three or four years lingers 
in the memory — to most of us our life before this age is 
almost wholly blank. Yet the things concerning these 
early years, which we do remember, seem to be readily 
and vividly recalled ; that which has thoroughly ab- 
sorbed the attention seems to be tenaciously held by 
the memory, which in these early years is apparently 
very plastic. This has a very potent application in 
regard to the habit-life ; physical habits learnt in early 
childhood are very prone to persist and constitute a 
lasting basis for character-formation. 

To turn to the mental aspect of sex phenomena, 
during infancy and the years immediately succeeding 
infancy, the child is absolutely unconscious of sex ; so 
far as sex impulse is concerned, we may say the emotional 
condition is sexually neutral. 

In the second half of childhood, while physical differ- 
entiation between the sexes is taking place, mental 
differentiation, which to some extent foreshadows later 
functions, becomes evident, each sex gradually deviating 
in its own specific direction from the neutral line. 

The little girl plays with her dolls, nurses, dresses and 
feeds them (eating the food herself to preserve the 
sequence of ideas), and in every way tries to be a * little 
mother.' Later she begins to be fond of needlework, 



30 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 

tries her hand at things domestic, still retaining the 
' mother ' instinct which now begins to express itself 
over babies rather than dolls, or perhaps, one should say, 
as well as over dolls, accepting for expression which- 
ever comes her way. Force of circumstance makes 
many c little mothers ' in the homes of the poor ! 

While the more feminine occupations and interests 
are beginning to monopolise her attention she is gradu- 
ally losing some of the interest she used to take in the 
rough and noisy games in which she used to join her 
brothers. Boys and girls play very contentedly together 
during this first period of childhood ; their interests 
diverge later. Probably in a certain degree, education 
(using the term in the wide sense) is a directive force 
moulding the trend of interest, but also undoubtedly 
a biological impulse, the circulation of the internal 
secretion of the racial glands, plays a part in deter- 
mining that the mental, occupational, and emotional 
interests of the girl should be of a nature more passive, 
less aggressive, quieter, and less expensive of energy than 
those of the boy. To appreciate the significance of this, 
let us consider briefly the biologic situation. 

Except in some of the very lowest forms of animal 
life, we find a new life arises from a fusion of two dis- 
similar elements — the ' ovum ' and the c sperm.' That 
body in which ova are produced is called ' female ' ; 
that which produces sperms is ' male.' The ovum itself 
is characteristically stationary or only capable of slow 
movement ; it is rich in nutritious substance and, 
consequently, it is very large in proportion to the sperm, 
which it attracts towards itself through promoting 
certain chemical influence. This latter element, the 
sperm, is typically very motile ; it has to find its way 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 31 

to the ovum ; consequently its bulk is small, its energy- 
great ; it yields to the attractive force of the ovum. 
The essential part of any organism is the germ-plasm 
(i.e. the tissue which produces the reproductive elements), 
and the body or ' soma ' is composed of all structures 
developed round the germ-plasm. The production of 
ova makes great demands upon the organism. More- 
over, in the higher animals, the mammals (and a few 
members of lower grades), provision must be made 
for the nourishment of the growing creature within the 
maternal body during a varying period, according to 
the type, after fertilisation has taken place. This, 
again, means great demand upon the maternal resources, 
so that we have a type of body developing round the 
ovum-producing germ-plasm which is pre-eminently 
passive, which is conservative of nutriment and of 
energy. Similarly the type of body which develops 
round the sperm-producing germ-plasm tends to be 
imbued with the characteristics of the sperm — to be 
active, aggressive, unconservative, and attracted. 

Having grasped this principle of intimate association 
between function and structure, we may return to the 
question of sex-differentiation and endeavour to realise 
that, though education may have something to do with 
the direction which the physical and mental develop- 
ment of the boy and the girl respectively take, there 
is also a deep, inborn impulse for development to 
proceed in such ways as shall assure accomplish- 
ment of the predestined function. We must remem- 
ber that, fundamentally, men and women are bio- 
logically and consequently psychologically different 
organisms. 

Psychologists lead us to recognise this stage of later 



32 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 

childhood as having a definite relation to the sexual life 
in so far as emotion is concerned ; it is designated the 
period of " undifferentiated sex impulse " — ' undifferenti- 
ated' because the direction of impulse has not yet become 
clearly defined. It is a stage in the life of the normal 
child during which ardent affection of a more or less 
passionate type may often be focused upon individuals, 
regardless of age, regardless of sex. Very often the 
adored one is considerably older than the child, as in 
case of a young pupil forming a passionate attachment 
for a teacher, or of a young boy for a woman of mature 
years — an attachment that is beyond all ordinary 
definition of affection, one which embraces all degrees of 
sentimental feelings and ideas, and even may include 
jealousy. Particularly in boarding-schools for girls 
does one meet with instances of this sort : a girl will 
become infatuated with another girl — it may be younger, 
but more often older, than herself — or with a mistress 
in the school. Such infatuations often become the 
fashion, leading to an unhealthy tone about the 
school. 

Those cases which are simply imitative are easily 
discouraged and soon forgotten, but there are instances 
of this undifferentiated stage persisting, particularly if 
unwisely fostered, and forming a basis for perversion. 
In the main, though, the stage of undifferentiated sex 
impulse, though it may extend over a number of years, 
even to early adolescence, gradually passes away, to be 
replaced at a later age by normal impulse towards the 
opposite sex. Moreover, it is by no means a rule that 
every individual passes through this stage ; and very 
often in those individuals in which it has occurred, it 
frequently passes away from the memory altogether, 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 33 

as it yields in ordinary normal development to the 
incoming of the normal differentiated impulse. At the 
same time, many adults can look back to their younger 
days and recognise an experience of the type which has 
been described. 

Although the years immediately succeeding birth 
are devoid of any conscious sex impulse, and although 
that impulse may express itself only in an undifferenti- 
ated direction in later childhood, we are led to know 
that the early years are years of extreme susceptibility 
to impression, which, at the time, is quite unrealised, 
yet leaves a lasting effect upon the ego. We are in- 
debted to the work of Professor Freud of Vienna for 
great illumination of this field of sex psychology, 
although, as he, himself, has from time to time remodelled 
his conclusions in the light of further research, and as 
other workers of his school express views which in the 
main are in harmony with Freud's, yet in many respects 
are modifications of Freud's conclusions, his theories 
do not yet find universal acceptance. However, it 
seems quite clear that the unconscious psychical pro- 
cesses play a very great part in nervous pathology, and 
that many manifestations of hysteria or other neurotic 
conditions owe their origin to some experiences which 
have occurred in earlier life, and have not persisted 
as part of the consciousness, nor can they be recalled 
from the fore-consciousness * by an effort of memory. 
They have become part of the unconscious, from which 

1 Conceptions which are not in the immediate field of consciousness, 
but which may be called into activity by one's own mental effort, 
are classified as * fore-conscious.* Fore -conscious ideas may be 
recalled into consciousness again and again, but * unconscious ' 
conceptions and ideas may only become * conscious ' through the 
medium of psycho-analysis or hypnosis. 

3 



34 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 

they can only be recalled by psycho-analytical processes 
or hypnosis. 

Conceptions, ideas, tendencies flock through the 
consciousness : the great majority pass into oblivion. 
There are two ways in which this i forgetting ' may 
occur. The mental energy involved in the formulation 
of an idea, in the direction of a tendency, in assimilation 
of a conception, cannot be dissipated or annihilated : 
it may be transmuted — ' sublimated 9 — into other 
forms of expression ; that is a wholesome process of 
' forgetting ' : or it may be suppressed — c repressed ' — 
into the unconscious, there to act somewhat in the 
nature of a foreign body, and to form a basis for some 
neurotic or perverted condition ; that constitutes an 
unwholesome process of forgetting. In the normal 
healthy mental life, a painful impression finds immediate 
coequal expression in a different form : take as an 
instance, on receiving a blow, one retaliates either 
verbally or physically, or, by strong association of moral 
ideas which will overcome the feelings of resentment, 
obtain that frame of mind which will lead one to ' turn 
the other cheek.' In other cases, dependent upon the 
nature of the individual, upon the type of emotion 
concerned, upon social restriction, and upon various 
other conditions, the effect of the painful impression 
received is not expressed in natural outlet, but is re- 
pressed into the unconscious, therein to remain irritant 
to the psyche, ultimately to break out as an. hysteria 
or other form of psycho-neurosis. Such repressions 
may take place in childhood, youthhood, or adulthood : 
in point of view of understanding the conditions of 
child-life, it is well to realise that many later abnormal 
conditions are to be traced back to some early ex- 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 35 

perience of ' shock/ frequently of a sexual association, 
which has occurred in childhood or even in infancy. 1 

Then again, in the normal child, this subconscious 
sexual life, the existence of which Freud is leading us 
to appreciate, may, by careless fostering or ignorant 
stimulation, be increased to precocity. This is specially 
so in the very early years : then comes a period of latent 
sex, which is much less liable to misfortune and which 
lasts till the approach of puberty. These prepubescent 
years during which the senses are alert, the memory 
quick and sure, the body and the mind are both in a 
placid state of regular development, are by their very 
characteristics admirably fitted as an approach to the 
stage of puberty, at the beginning of which the whole 
being comes under a reign of change and upheaval. 
The physical changes which announce the onset of 
puberty are, in themselves, bound to exercise a profound 
influence upon the mental life, an influence which may 
be disastrously perverted through lack of understanding 
of the part played by these organic happenings. But 
this is not the only critical expansion of mental and 
emotional experience. Co-ordinate with the expression 
of functional activity of the racial organs is the awaken- 
ing of the racial instinct, the all-potent impulse im- 
planted by Nature in all mature creatures, which, 
through the pleasure it brings in its train, is to secure 
that her races die not. Eeproduction is essentially 
costly to the organism, sometimes even to death ; 
its performance is fraught with many dangers ; and 
were it not for the irresistible impulse which drives the 

1 See McDougalTs Psychology (Home University Library, published 
by Williams & Norgate), chap, vii., for a short account of Freud's 
work. 



36 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 

sexes to take interest in one another, and to co-operate 
in the fulfilment of their racial function, were the possi- 
bility of this co-operation left to the merest chance, 
the animal kingdom would be very small in numbers, 
and composed of the least highly evolved types. Evolu- 
tion is all-pervasive ; it has effected not only the present 
physical condition of all types, but the mentality, the 
emotional status also : as the physical sex organisation 
has proceeded along lines of progress, so has the sex 
impulse evolved, till in Man we have, of each, the most 
refined elaboration. 

The beginning of puberty sees, then, the transition 
of the sex-life from the subconscious and latent condition 
to the plane of consciousness. Its first steps in this 
new phase are not at first very definite and forceful, 
though in the boy there is usually a more vigorous 
psychic disturbance than in the girl. This is, of course, 
to be expected as a preface to the more powerfully 
direct nature of the racial instinct in the male : this 
instinct is diffused through various streams of ex- 
pression in the female organism, for the part played 
in procreation by the female, as we have already seen, 
biologically makes more extensive demands upon her 
organic structure, and, consequently, psychologically 
tends to a diffusion of the racial instinct in the female, 
in contrast to the concentration of that instinct in the 
male. And if we consider this principle in relation to 
the most highly evolved type, the human species, we 
find it applicable ; biologically the male contribution 
to the formation of a new being is made in a single 
act ; in the female, the biologic responsibility lasts for 
a long period of many months, during which the new 
life receives antenatal and postnatal care. So the 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 37 

tendency is for the racial instinct in man to be con- 
centrated towards the fulfilment of that act, and for 
that instinct in woman to be more widely expressed, to 
find a considerable part of its expression in the love of 
children and the desire for motherhood. 

The first stirrings of the racial instinct pulsate but 
slowly and gently, gathering strength and influence 
as the early years of youthhood pass. l Sex hunger 9 
begins to enter into the desires of our boys and girls : 
we find the boy beginning to take an interest, perhaps 
shyly and from afar-off, in girls ; beginning, too, to take 
an interest in his personal appearance, and beginning 
to offer willingly the courtesies which before have 
appeared more as a duty. And girls, during these 
years which see incipient expression of the racial 
instinct — somewhat earlier in girls than boys — become 
conscious of sex attraction, begin to wield a sway. 
Each sex, in short, is beginning to be aware of and 
critical of the secondary sexual qualities of the other, 
an awareness and a criticism which becomes stronger 
and more potent as adolescence proceeds. 

The awakening of the sexual life, accompanied as it 
is by poignant physical change and by new emotional 
experiences and interests, is a period fraught with many 
dangers — a period liable to inoculation from many 
sources of both a physical and a mental nature. It 
may see the beginnings, if there is any tendency inborn, 
of both physical and mental weakness, so critical is the 
intense instability of its balance, which instability, Sir 
James Crichton-Browne tells us, girls are inclined to 
suffer from more than boys. 

The mental life undergoes many changes, more or 
less gradually. The awakening of the sex impulse 



38 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 

institutes a whole new mental outlook. Hitherto the 
child has been characteristically self-centred, but now 
a new curiosity dawns: he begins to investigate his 
equation with his environment, and finds himself 
launched into a world of new relationships ; he realises 
himself as a personality, and discovers himself as a mem- 
ber of society, a social unit with social obligations to fulfil 
and reacting to social affects. Keason, which has been 
comparatively embryonic, now begins to unfold freely : 
mental development has yielded to a great stimulus. 
New interests assert their claim ; new ways of looking 
at things present themselves. What he was accustomed 
to accepting blindly he now begins to question, so that 
a reasoning basis for moral conduct begins to impregnate 
the mentality. Keligious doubts and fears arise ; 
many adolescents of keen independent thought go 
through a period of agnosticism, no doubt due to their 
new dawning appreciation of the psychic world and their 
inability to adjust this new influx to the more or less 
concrete conception of religion of which their childish 
ideas consisted. This power of independence in the 
thinking life augurs well for future mental expression ; 
the adolescent who possesses it will be capable of making 
a mark, securing an independent line of thought or 
action for himself in later life, but its early manifesta- 
tion is often of a type unattractive or to be deplored. 
Such adolescents often pass through a self-assertive 
stage, glory in unconventionally, thoughtlessly tread 
upon people's toes, and overestimate the importance 
of their own sayings and doings. It is a form of mental 
vigour which will, if not unwisely fostered, undergo 
transmutation as the years succeed one another, and 
become power. 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 39 

Primarily, adolescence is a problem of emotional 
change. Imagination stirs in a wonderful way, carrying 
the adolescent far from the egoistic centre of childhood. 
The heart throbs with new joys. Nature unlocks her 
treasures to the now-seeing eye. A wealth of senti- 
ment, rarely expressed (for the adolescent is slow to 
speak of deep feelings), floods the mind and brings it 
into communion with Nature. The beautiful in Art, 
the inspiring in Literature, the soul-lifting in Music, the 
heroic in Man — all alike may leave their impress upon 
the sensitised psyche — sensitised, alas ! not only to what- 
soever be lovely and of good report, but to that which 
may be unholy and soul-destroying. We recognise two 
types of imaginative activity : the type which expresses 
itself with a definite object in view, which is purposive 
or productive, such type of activity as is involved in 
the creation of a design, the planning of a tale, or the 
painting of a picture ; and the type which is less pur- 
posive, more passive, freely wandering amid the scenes 
and thoughts of memory, making odd connections 
between present and past, giving weird or delightful 
embellishments to persons of fact or imagery, weaving 
conversations,' journeying into new and far country. 
This latter type of imagination is often called ' fancy,' 
and though less purposive than productive imagination, 
plays a not less valuable part in the making of the 
character. Childish imagination runs riot in the land 
of fairy-tales, particularly during the seventh and eighth 
years. Later childhood casts fairy fancies aside, and 
adolescence yields to the fascination of romance, of 
travel, and of adventure, and bows the knee in hero- 
worship. Expansion of the emotional life has largely 
come through the intensifying of the imagination. 



40 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 

This power of imagination working with and through 
the emotions, through aesthetic sensitiveness, through 
unfolding sentiment, and through an enlarged concep- 
tion of humanity, is a factor in adolescent development 
which we, realising how much it will aid towards instilla- 
tion of ideals for life-guidance, must appreciate as of 
profound importance. I am inclined to think that 
this power of imagination is at the bottom of much of 
the sentimentalism which young adolescents feel and 
sometimes express. The growth of juvenile love is one 
of the most interesting and one of the most important 
problems of our theme. We must recognise it and 
understand it* 

The age at which fairy-tales were believed in has 
passed ; the spirit of romance has been resting tempor- 
arily during the later years of childhood, but springs 
into vigorous life again, in a new relation, as the end of 
childhood is reached. In the fairy-tale days the child 
was perfectly satisfied to weave romances around 
the fairy prince and fairy princess, the ogre, the giant, 
and " all the king's horses and all the king's men." 
The personal element obtruded itself but little beyond 
admonishment — " and the goblins 'ull git yer, ef yer 
don't watch out ! " Towards the end of childhood, 
however, a new note — the personal — is sounded. 
Romantic fancies no longer play round impossible fairy 
people, but round fictitious possible people, or around 
imaginary doings and sayings of known people — people 
who are, according to the fancy, in some more or less 
personal touch with the day-dreamer, who is no longer 
a mental spectator, but is in the drama. To the very 
juvenile mind the hero of dreams is superlative in all 
the virtues — immaculate in body, soul, and dress ; to 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 41 

the fourteen-year-old girl he is still superlative, and 
immaculate, and possessed of unlimited wealth — a 
slightly practical note ; to sixteen, he is fine, handsome, 
capable of doing the right thing at the right moment, 
has wealth enough for all demands that may be made 
upon him, perfectly groomed and tailored, with many 
virtues, and a great power of loving and being loved — 
a slightly more practical and possible young man ; 
towards the end of adolescence he has probably left the 
realm of romance and become an actuality — an ordinary 
man, probably plain, stronger than she, more or less 
up-to-date in dress, with worldly possessions enough to 
meet the demands of matrimony, loving and loved — 
a perfectly practical and commonplace hero. The 
power of romance dieth not. Happy are the natures 
that see a halo round mediocrity ! 

It is Love, in all its refinement and beauty, which 
lifts Man to his high plane in the kingdom of living 
things ; he has the power of conscious selection, of 
choice, the crux of psychic evolution ; those lower than 
he are guided blindly by instinct alone, by physical 
passion only ; and if he neglects, degrades, or evades 
his grand psychic climax he will become as those lower 
than he. And, as he has toiled up the evolutionary 
ladder of physical life, and can look back to recognise 
in his own growth some of the steps up which his race 
has clambered, so also has he climbed an evolutionary 
ladder of psychic life, and may, looking back, identify 
many of the steps his race has made. He can see in the 
silken nest in which the female spider harbours her eggs, 
in the precision with which the female newt places each 
egg under a leaf of Starwort, in the care which the bird 
lavishes on her eggs and nestlings, in the long-suffering 



42 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 

tenderness with which the cat feeds and trains her 
kittens — in all he can see the evolution of mother-love, 
to know that it has reached its climax in his own mother. 
If his insight is keen and pure he will read aright the 
message in the song of the birds at spring-time, in the 
croaking of the frogs, in the perfume with which some 
of the butterflies attract their mates, in the ' courtship 
dance • of the spider, in the growth of the crest in newts, 
in the restlessness of the salmon ready to begin its 
journey up the river to the quiet shallows where the eggs 
may be laid and fertilised ; and he will know that it is 
all one grand song of love which, finding its melody in 
single notes and simple theme in those lower than he, 
breaks out in rich complexity of chord and harmony 
in his own life-love. The first notes of juvenile love 
sound faintly, tremulously, and are strangely re- 
miniscent of the early notes sounded in the racial theme. 
They soon gather strength and coherence — may develop 
into a life-inspiring melody, may perhaps become 
a crude and coarse jingle. It greatly depends upon 
nurture as to which way the balance will go ; in some 
natures the direction is quickly decided, and adolescence 
sees little or no change in type, merely intensification 
of the direction of juvenile love ; in other natures, the 
whole of youthhood is a scene of constant change ; 
the years see first one phase of love-manifestation, then 
another ; shyness followed by forwardness ; response to 
beauty's appeal supplanted by response to the psychic 
appeal ; forwardness may give place to aloofness ; high 
ideals may pass away, crushed by unfortunate experi- 
ence or starved through lack of sustenance ; out of crude- 
ness, ignorance, misfortune, sentimentalism, a high ideal 
may arise — so great are the possibilities of variation. 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 43 

Acts and expressions of adolescents may or may not 
be prophets of their maturity. As regards their thoughts 
and behaviour in early love-affairs, I am strongly in- 
clined to think that imagination and imitativeness are 
responsible for much of modern adolescent thinking and 
behaviour in regard to love. Girls read novels, tales 
in which the love-note is predominant, admire the 
heroine, accept her notions, and when circumstance 
presents an opportunity which may be regarded as a 
test of their own conduct, they behave as their much- 
admired heroine would have done. It is very much a 
question of temperament as to which type of heroine 
will be preferred and copied ! This stimulation of 
the love-interest through reading may produce a 
fictitious growth of the emotional filament, which can 
only be labelled ' sentimentalism ' : this it is, which 
leads the boy to cut off and treasure — perhaps for a 
day, a week, not a year — a bit of his schoolgirl sweet- 
heart's hair, which leads a girl to tie up his grubby notes 
in blue ribbon. Such acts are not acts of fetishism or 
incipient perversion : they are merely performed under 
a sentimental appeal. It is a phase that will pass. 
Sentiment will oust sentimentalism ; as the stream of 
time carries away the lighter dross, the gold will re- 
main ; the adolescent, nearly mature, will know it has 
remained. Proneness to introspection is often typical 
of adolescence : this liability may be a vast aid to 
mental self-adjustment, in a normal healthy mind, but 
where the general mental, moral, and physical entourage 
is not such as may contribute a healthy stimulating 
reaction, this tendency to introspection may lead 
to a morbidity and moodiness of disposition. Such 
a tendency, however, may be circumvented, for the 



44 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 

adolescent mind is quick to respond to outside interests ; 
with great avidity it seizes new topics, generously it 
yields to new claims upon its attention. Philan- 
thropy and social work often exercise a charm, it may 
be through emotional appeal to the sympathies so 
easily roused, or it may be because the acute activities 
are afforded an opportunity for self-expression ; perhaps 
also some satisfaction to the sense of self-importance 
enters in ; probably it is due to a combination of all 
three main factors and others contributory. 

Youthhood, too, is the time of hobbies and the time 
of keen ardour in games. The games interest may per- 
sist, the hobbies may pass away — but each has served 
its purpose in providing an outlet for adolescent energy 
which, had it not been allowed a ready outlet, would 
have dammed up and perverted the stream. We must 
remember, referring to the earlier remarks on Freud's 
work, that much of this unbounded energy of youth 
is sublimated sex energy, and if anything interferes 
with normal sublimation, an unhealthiness of mind is 
more than likely to creep in. In fact, it is most im- 
portant that girls and boys should have full opportunity 
for sublimation of sex energy, a point which should be 
fully borne in mind in connection with education of 
youthhood. The management and control of the sex 
impulse constitutes the prime problem of adolescence, 
the great solution of which lies in sublimation. 

In connection with the sex emotions, as in all that 
has been said regarding the psychological aspects of 
development, we have to remember that tremendous 
variability may characterise individual cases. The 
temperamental factor is widely variable. One can only 
indicate the lines upon which average development 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 45 

takes place and draw attention to the wide range of 
possible variation. 

And so it is with the sex emotions. I am not now 
dealing with the more psychic aspects of sex attraction, 
of sex hunger, but with the more purely physical sensa- 
tions localised in the zone of the racial organs. It has 
already been indicated that in boys these sensations 
are more acute and specific than in girls : though here, 
again, no absolutely hard-and-fast rule applies. There 
are boys who experience but little physical sex feeling ; 
there are girls who experience much, although the 
contrary is the more general rule. In order to under- 
stand how it may be that control of the sex emotions 
presents more or less difficulty, let us refer again to 
the racial organs. These are all richly supplied with 
nerves, afferent and efferent, so that they come directly 
under the dominion of the brain and nervous system, 
and also in their turn may react upon the brain and 
nervous system. A very close inter-relation exists 
between the reproductive and the nervous systems, as 
it also exists between the other organic systems and the 
nervous system. No one system of the body can work 
in isolation ; each reacts, more or less, to the condition 
of the others. Then, too, we are aware of some very 
curious organic responses. Take, for example, the 
case of a person who suddenly sees something terrify- 
ing. His heart stops beating for a second or more, 
then palpitates rapidly, the circulatory action being 
temporarily, through nervous reaction, thrown out of 
rhythm. Again, a particularly nauseous sight presents 
itself, and he who sees it cannot eat, cannot swallow 
food for the time being — a temporary inhibition due to 
the close inter-relation between the nervous and digestive 



46 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 

systems. Disorders of the digestive system, imposing 
a condition of malnutrition, lead to disorders of the 
nervous, skeletal, muscular, and epidermal systems. 
All these examples are matters of common knowledge, 
and serve to make clear how close is the harmony 
of working relationship between the various organic 
systems and how easily disharmony may be brought 
about. 

To consider the action of the racial system in the light 
of these facts, and particularly to understand how the 
sexual emotions may be stimulated, let us remember 
that the sperm-producing and ovum-producing organs 
are glands ; they may be regarded as coming under 
the heading of ' emotional glands.' The lachrymal 
(' tear ') glands of the eye constantly secrete from the 
blood a small amount of fluid which keeps the eyeball, 
the lining of the eyelids and of the nose in a moist 
condition. By a variety of stimuli — it may be some- 
thing seen, something heard, something smelt, or by 
physical pain — these glands are accelerated in activity, 
and the fluid overflows — tears. In a similar way, the 
salivary glands of the mouth may be regarded as 
emotional glands : it does not need the taste of a lemon 
to make the saliva overflow, the sight of one or the sound 
or thought of the word i lemon ' is often enough to 
stimulate. The perspiration glands of the skin provide 
yet another example : through fright or anxiety their 
action is often rendered abnormal. And so it is with the 
sexual glands. It may be something seen — a picture ; it 
may be something heard — a suggestive joke ; it may be 
something felt — a handclasp or a kiss ; or even a perfume 
may be the stimulus which promotes response in the 
sexual glands and their adjacent organs. 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 47 

So it comes to be that the adolescent who may have 
a strongly sexual nature, or who may not have had 
environmental aid in achieving thorough sublimation, 
may have many difficulties in exercising sex control. 
And through the endless chain of organic relationships, 
weakness or disorder in the racial and the nervous 
systems will be liable mutually to react. 

An understanding of these psycho-physical depend- 
encies should prove a help not only in providing a 
rational basis for education of adolescents, but in leading 
us to realise the importance of laying an early foundation 
of habit-life — a foundation which should begin to be laid 
in infancy ; indeed, the ground may be prepared for it 
even before birth, for it must be remembered that a 
child with a strongly sexual or precocious tendency has 
often to thank its parents for its endowment. 

In order, however, that we may help adolescents 
through their periods of difficulty, in order that we may 
provide an education which shall be beneficial, strengthen- 
ing, and shall aid in sublimation, we need to understand, 
in addition to the phenomena of psycho-sexual life, the 
general lay of the land during adolescence ; we need to 
grasp the main characteristics of youthhood (so many 
of us forget what we have been !), and to enter sym- 
pathetically into the psychological condition of adolescent 
life, so that though we may know where the pitfalls lie, 
we may also know how to make provision against falling 
into them, and how to achieve the happiest circumvention. 

Mental activity is very great during adolescence, very 
easily stimulated, exceedingly responsive. Hence, we 
find a great readiness to interest in outside matters, 
often a spontaneity of interest, which provides a valuable 
means of effecting sublimation, and also of avoiding 



48 MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 

the development of the introspective habit. This 
liability to introspection is frequently characteristic 
of youthhood, particularly of youthhood insufficiently 
occupied or unhealthy — a point to which we will return 
in the next chapter. It is largely a question of tempera- 
ment as to how far the introspective habit may pre- 
dominate in adolescence, but as William McDougall 
points out, temperament, though a complex of many 
factors, is largely a matter of bodily constitution : the 
great bodily organs exert potent influences on the mental 
life : there can.be no divorce of bodily from mental life ; 
the health of the one is intimately bound up in the health 
of the other. The equation between the two is not 
absolute ; if it were so, we should be unconscious of 
temperamental differentiation of persons ; but because 
the equatorial values vary in different persons, we 
recognise this variation and call it temperament. 

In conclusion, let us realise that adolescence is the 
great formative time of life. The child comes into the 
world already endowed by heredity, receiving from its 
ancestors the gifts of traits, good, bad, and indifferent, 
each and all of which will develop in encouraging 
environment. Many of these traits may demonstrate 
their existence very early in life ; others are delayed in 
their manifestation. Deprived of environmental sup- 
port and stimulus, a characteristic will be unlikely to 
survive, or able to express itself in full potency. 
Adolescence is the determinative period : inherent 
characters brought out then or earlier, encouraged, 
strengthened, then fix themselves as permanencies in 
the physical or mental make-up of the individual : 
likewise, inherent characters discouraged and inhibited 
during these formative years tend to weaken, and 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 49 

ultimately may die out. A healthy, happy, well- 
balanced, and well-conditioned maturity is largely, if 
not wholly, the outcome of a well-nurtured (it may be 
fortuitously so) adolescence. 

" Our times are in His hand 
Who saith, ' A whole I planned, 
Youth shows but half ; trust God : see all nor be afraid ! * 

What entered into thee, 

That was, is, and shall be : 

Time's wheel runs back or stops : Potter and clay endure. 

He fixed thee 'mid this danoe 

Of plastic circumstance 

This Present, thou, forsooth, wouldst fain arrest : 

Machinery just meant 

To give thy soul its bent, 

Try thee and turn thee forth, sufficiently impressed." 1 

1 "Rabbi Ben Ezra," R. B. Browning. 



CHAPTER IV 

Care of Children 

In the two foregoing chapters we have become acquainted 
with the growth of the body and the growth of the 
mind ; we have seen the various stages which form 
special punctuations in the graph of life's curve, and 
should, with this knowledge, be ready to face the ques- 
tion of supervision of child-life in a rational and com- 
prehending way, having confidence in ourselves that 
we know just why we pursue certain courses of action 
and give certain directive influence to conduct and 
thought. So much may be done indirectly to ensure 
right ways of sex behaviour and right attitude of mind 
towards the sex life ; so much may be done indirectly 
to ensure success in meeting the many temptations which 
mav assail in later life, or to ensure that those circum- 
stances which to an individual, unaided by careful 
nurture, would present temptation, shall be voided of 
their seductive power ; so much may be dgne indirectly 
to train the thoughts towards that which is highest 
and best, to direct the energies towards that which 
is rightly expressive and nobly undertaken ; that a 
great call is heard for those who have the lives of 
children in their charge to understand how to care for 
them and train them in the wisest and in the rightly 

sympathetic way. 

50 



CARE OF CHILDREN 51 

An upright manhood, an upright womanhood, are 
not attainments of mushroom growth ; they are the 
product of all the years that lie behind, the foundation, 
indeed, often being laid in infancy and little-childhood. 
Habits learnt in early life are difficult to eradicate ; they 
tend to exercise a profound influence over the later life, 
often persisting to the end of life : hence it is of supreme 
importance that these foundations of early habit-life 
be rightly laid, that there may be no omission or com- 
mission here which may be held responsible for failure 
of later training or teaching. The sex functions are 
one department only of the bodily organisation, albeit 
a most important department for us to consider ; per- 
fect bodily functioning is that condition in which no 
one system enforces itself predominantly upon the 
consciousness, but that all are working together in 
harmonious relationship. So we must, in order to 
supervise child-life intelligently, give careful attention 
to the development of healthy physical habits, ignoring 
no aspect of this physical question. Good training 
in infancy and early childhood in connection with 
bodily functions helps not only in the promotion of 
physical health, but makes for the promotion of healthy 
attitude of mind towards all that the body may have 
to perform. 

A well-balanced mind in a well-balanced body con- 
stitutes the ideal condition, whatever be the state of 
life through which the individual may be passing. 
Every conservation of nervous energy, every assurance 
of physical well-being, therefore, is essential to this 
condition, and must be provided for during the whole 
of life. 

The very little child, the infant, in some cases, may, 



52 CARE OF CHILDREN 

through accidental discovery of the nervous response 
to stimulation of the racial organs, become aware of 
the pleasurable sensations arising in this region, and 
may be led to repeat the actions which give rise to them, 
in this way forming a habit, in absolute ignorance and 
unconsciousness of its bearing, which may seriously 
affect its later life. This habit of ' self -abuse ' or 
' masturbation,' as it is usually designated, may, as is 
already indicated, arise in infancy, and may persist for 
many years, if not throughout life. It will be remembered 
that the genital zone is exceedingly sensitive in nervous 
response and it must also be borne in mind how the 
infant learns by association of instinctive action and 
result : that which it performed once produced a 
certain result ; repetition of the action produces similar 
result ; and so on, till it comes in the slow processes 
of its consciousness to associate definitely action and 
result, and to act accordingly as to whether the result 
be pleasurable, gives satisfaction or not. And so it is 
that even a little child may be led to form an undesir- 
able sex habit. 

Of the conditions which may give rise to stimulation, 
the chief are those of an unhygienic nature. Lack of 
cleanliness in this part of the body, as in others, leads 
to accumulation of body secretions in the folds of skin : 
this accumulation tends to be of an irritant nature, 
and encourages friction to relieve the irritation. Every 
care to cleanse thoroughly, briskly, and gently, should 
form part of the daily programme of bathing, and as 
soon as the little boy — or girl, as the case may be — is 
capable of being taught to wash and bathe himself, 
he should be taught to give attention to these parts, 
just in as natural and as matter-of-fact manner as he 



CARE OF CHILDREN 53 

is taught to wash " all the little holes and corners " 
of eyes, ears, and nose. Till this time is reached, the 
mother should make such cleanliness of the racial 
organs and the parts adjacent to them a daily care ; 
in the case of little boys who have not been circumcised, 1 
it is necessary to draw back the fold of skin known as 
the * foreskin ' quickly and lightly, and cleanse the 
part thoroughly. It is most important that this habit 
of attending to the cleanliness of all parts of the body 
should be learnt very early in life, while the mind is 
ready to accept direction in a matter-of-fact way, and 
so to form good habits. If this detail of bodily attention 
is left to be introduced later in life, towards the end of 
childhood and later, there is more likelihood of direct- 
ing a stimulative attention to the racial organs : this 
will be against the interests of their health, and against 
the hope of preserving a normal attitude towards the 
sex organs. 

Unsuitable clothing may be the cause of irritation, 
by being too tight, or of rough material or dirty. Little 
boys' trousers should always be roomy, and should have 
soft, detachable, washable linings. Similar care should 
be taken in regard to the underclothing of little girls. 
In the case of poor, ill-clad children, in addition to 
these considerations, absence of adequate covering often 
renders the lower parts of the body very accessible to 
stimulation and irritation. 

Other causes of local irritation may be more or less 
pathological (e.g. intestinal threadworms) and may 

1 Dr. StiU in Diseases of Childhood is of the opinion that complete 
circumcision is inadvisable, tending to expose a highly sensitive area, 
but holds that partial removal of the foreskin only, is necessary as a 
preventive against accumulation of irritant matter. 



54 CARE OF CHILDREN 

necessitate medical advice, which should always be 
sought where simple measures do not result in a cure. 

Self-abuse is most frequently practised in bed. The 
wise mother, therefore, in order that no untoward 
happening should be laid to the charge of her negligence, 
will help her little ones to form habits which will be 
preventive. It is wise to train children right from 
infancy to go to sleep with hands outside the coverlet 
or folded up on the low pillow, also to rest 'on the left 
side rather than on the back ; to go to bed physically 
tired so that sleep follows at once, and to rise imme- 
diately on waking in the morning. It is most unwise 
to insist upcn an active, alert child lying still in bed in 
the morning till the " getting-up bell rings." The 
habit of emptying the bladder prior to going to bed 
and again immediately en rising should be inculcated. 
Bedclothing, too, should be clean, light in weight and 
not stuffy or over-heating, the bedroom cool and well 
ventilated. Children should have single beds, or if, 
as the case may sometimes happen, household furnish- 
ing accommodation does not admit of this, as far as 
possible, children of the same age and same sex only 
should share beds. 

A word of warning to parents, that they should be 
exceedingly careful in the choice of nurses to attend 
to their children, and that they should not, unwisely, 
leave their children in the care of unreliable servants. 
Medical information tells us that only too frequently 
are children mishandled by untrustworthy nurses and 
servants, who, in this way, endeavour to soothe a 
crying or troublesome charge. 

In very young children physical habits are formed with 
great readiness and ease, much more so then than later in 



CARE OF CHILDREN 55 

life, when the establishment of a new habit involves more 
than mere implanting ; the uprooting of an earlier-formed 
habit, the undoing of a more or less firmly fixed custom, 
may be necessary, and thus render reformation much 
more difficult of accomplishment than is formation. 
A little child should learn to perform all the bodily 
functions regularly, and to view in a right and proper 
spirit all to which this relates. In particular is the 
inculcation of a right attitude towards the excretory 
functions necessary, not only in the interests of health, 
but also in the interests of modesty and personal 
reticence. Neglect to regard this aspect of a child's 
training often leads to undesirable ways and confidences 
with other children later on, encouraging an irreverent 
and perhaps vulgar and immodest behaviour. It 
should be explained in a simple way to the little one 
that the body has much work to do, that it has to grow 
and has to be kept warm, and that food is taken to 
serve these purposes in the body. But that, just as in 
the case of the fire burning in the grate, there are parts 
that are not required — the smoke which passes up the 
chimney and the cinders left in the grate — so in our 
bodies there are parts which are not needed, when the 
work is done and the warmth obtained. If this un- 
needed material were to stay in the body, it would do a 
great deal of harm, and so wise provision has been made 
for these useless parts to come away. Little ones are 
amused at seeing the * smoke ' on a winter's day issuing 
from their nostrils and mouth. A wise and tactful 
mother can explain these facts to her little ones in 
simple words and phrases, and can, in her own gentle 
way, present this knowledge so that the child realises 
that the exercise of these and all bodily functions are 



56 CARE OF CHILDREN 

things that concern himself and those who are in charge 
of him only : not to be ashamed of them (for there is 
nothing in the body ever to be ashamed of — its wonder- 
ful perfection of functioning calls only for admiration), 
but to be reticent about them, so that a true modesty, 
not a false modesty, may develop. 

Other habits may well find a rooting ground during 
these years of early childhood : a cold tub in the morn- 
ing to promote vigour and nervous tone. Daily and 
frequent exercise is essential to healthy muscular and 
nervous development, and the desire for it, a natural 
expression of childhood, should be encouraged and 
fostered through all the years of growth, so that it 
becomes a necessity to the well-being and happiness of 
the adolescent, providing in those days quite naturally 
a mode of transmutation or sublimation of sex energy. 

The question of self-control has a great bearing upon 
our problem, which will be dealt with more fully when 
we are considering the moral and ethical aspects of 
sex training. It is here relevant, however, to point out 
and impress the fact that self-control is no swift-grown 
product of later years : any power of self-mastery 
which the adult may possess, and the ease with which 
it may react to temptation, are the expression of power 
which has been long years in formulating itself. Even 
in the nursery may the seeds be sown : the little child 
may be taught that to desire is not always to receive ; 
in fact, it should be trained towards small acts of self- 
denial , away from the paths of self-indulgence . Poerster x 
quotes most aptly the dictum of Joseph de Maistre : 
" Everything that hinders a man strengthens him. 

1 Marriage and the Sex Problem, Poerster, p. 176. Published by 
Wells, Gardner, Darton, & Co, 



CARE OF CHILDREN 57 

Many a man of thirty years of age is capable of success- 
fully resisting the allurements of a beautiful woman 
because at the age of five or six he was taught voluntarily 
to give up a toy or sweet ! " The importance of ascetic 
training is in danger of being undervalued, and is, at 
any rate, unappreciated by the over-fond parent or 
unwise nurse who would thoughtlessly indulge all the 
child's desires. It is not too soon to begin in the 
nursery to build up will-power which is to lead to 
absolute self-control; self -conquest in the great struggles 
of life is prepared for and rendered easier by the many 
little battles which have been fought and won earlier in 
the day. And so we see that it is not only for physical 
reasons that greediness and selfishness should be re- 
strained, but such training is bound to have a very 
practical moral reaction. 

Habits of independence may be learnt in these early 
years, that strong self-reliance may evolve. Perhaps 
we do not always realise the small beginnings of virtue 
and of vice, and that the small items of nursery days 
may be a considerable factor in character formation. 
TheMontessori doctrkieof self -education, with its dictum, 
" Do nothing for the child which he can possibly do for 
himself," l is full of suggestive power, and may, when 
we ponder over the possibilities of this scheme, induce 
us towards reform in the many customs surrounding 
and governing child-life. Is there any reason why we 
should continue to make children's clothes fasten up 
the back, so increasing their dependence, when if they 
fastened up the front the little ones might so easily be 
taught to do this thing for themselves ? Particularly, 
one would urge, in regard to little girl-children, that 

1 Edmond Holmes in A Montetsori Mother, by Dorothy Fisher. 



58 CARE OF CHILDREN 

habits of independence, resourcefulness, and self-reliance 
should be fostered. 

Growing out of this idea is a side issue of suggestion : 
that in these early years also the child should be trained 
to regard his own toilet requisites as private to himself, 
and should never become accustomed to using those 
belonging to anyone else, so that as the years pass by 
he would no sooner think of using the towels provided 
for common use in public lavatories than he would 
think of using a public toothbrush. 

One recognises, of course, that such training of young 
children makes great demands upon the time, the 
patience and the tact of those who undertake the 
work, and that many busy mothers may be strongly 
tempted to take the short-cut, and do the things^ them- 
selves, instead of guiding the child along the slow and 
difficult path of self -education. But those who have 
the highest good of the little ones at heart will do their 
utmost to face and cope with the problems their efficient 
training presents, realising that their effort and patience 
will be rewarded, not only in the relief which such 
independence of help will ultimately bring, but in the 
assurance that they " have had the vision for a guide." l 

The years of infancy and little-childhood are extremely 
impressionable, more so than is usually realised. When 
we were dealing with the psychological development 
of the child, it was pointed out how susceptible of 
impression these early years were, and that impressions 
then received were very liable to become ' repressed ' 
into the unconsciousness, there to remain and ultimately 
be the cause of some later condition of mental ill- 
health. Bearing this in mind, those who have the care 
1 Ethel Clifford, " Songs of Dreams " (The Ship of Dreams). 



CARE OF CHILDREN 59 

of little children before them will realise how imprudent 
and incautious many people are in regard to their doings 
and sayings in the presence of young children. Many 
adults are. utterly careless in their conduct (e.g. in con- 
nection with exercise of the excretory functions) when 
little children are with them, little realising that the 
young ears are hearing, that the young eyes are seeing, 
and that the young consciousness is being impressed. 
The mind during these early years is very receptive, 
the memory very plastic : those things which do find 
a resting-place in the memory at this time fix themselves 
there with great certainty. How important it is, there- 
fore, that nothing but good should have a chance to 
abide ! 

At some time during the nursery and later childhood 
period, children usually begin to ask questions con- 
cerning the origin of babies, and it is important that 
they should be told the truth — not necessarily the whole 
story of reproduction in detail, but their ingenuous, 
simply-put questions should be answered with equal 
simplicity and frankness, in language such as they can 
understand. The story of the transmission of life from 
one generation to another should gradually unfold 
itself to the growing intelligence, making its way im- 
perceptibly into the child's knowledge of the things of 
life. How this may be achieved is a theme for another 
chapter. Here, in this consideration of supervision of 
child-life, we would point out the fact of these oppor- 
tunities arising, urge the need for their recognition, in 
order that the mother, whose joy and privilege it is to be 
the great guide, should realise how early her opportunities 
in this direction begin. The first questions which the 
little ones frame are naive, innocent, generally more or 



60 CARE OF CHILDREN 

less pertinent to some happening — the arrival of a 
new baby in the family, or of new additions to the 
farmyard stock — or perhaps they show the beginnings 
of wonder as to their own origin — " Where was I before 
I was here ? " 

Whatever may be her guide, the wise mother will 
recognise it, and will seize the chance which a fore- 
sighied Nature, implanting this curiosity about the 
origin of life thus early, offers her. For it is infinitely 
better that the main facts involved in parenthood should 
be learnt early rather than late — before ten years of 
age — very often earlier. Childish curiosity concerning 
these and other things varies greatly in degree and 
in rate of development : another reason for drawing 
attention to the mother's privilege, in order that each 
mother should be ready to help her own children to 
plant their feet firmly, although the first steps be tenta- 
tive and slow, upon the shores of knowledge. If she 
allows these opportunities to pass by, unappreciated, 
her chance is probably gone ; for this curiosity which 
children show is perfectly natural and healthy, and, 
moreover, is invincible, and if its claims are not satis- 
fied rapidly, legitimately, and progressively by the one 
in whom all trust should be reposed, the child will be 
driven to seek the information from other sources — 
sources often wholly undesirable, often vulgar and 
pernicious, at any rate less valuable and wholesome 
than the mother's loving instruction could provide. 

As the years of childhood pass, youthhood draws 
nigh ; the transition from the one epoch to the other 
is a difficult period, one which, accompanied as it is by 
evidences of physical change, the boy and girl should 
not be allowed to meet unprepared. Many girls, being 



CARE OF CHILDREN 61 

totally unprepared for the onset of menstruation, 
experience severe nervous shock (this at a time when 
their nervous system is least likely to withstand a 
shock), and adopt various unhygienic measures to stop 
the flow, in some cases, in their ignorance, bringing 
about then, or later, ill-health of a more or less serious 
nature. Even girls who do know what to expect are 
often without knowledge of the care they should take 
or the measures they should adopt to secure the proper 
establishment of this new bodily function, which, 
through lack of understanding its great significance, 
is often regarded in an irreverent and wrong light. 
There are many questions which a ,girl has to settle for 
herself during these early years of puberal change — 
questions of health, of bodily care, of occupation, and 
so forth, and she should not be deprived of the counsel 
and sympathy which would make the transition easier. 

Boys, too, often stand in need of help and guidance. 
The transition period in boys is longer and less intensive 
than in girls, and the physical and psychical experiences 
are less definitely periodic. But boys, experiencing 
their first seminal emissions and violent dreams, are 
frequently, through lack of a wise counsellor, driven to 
confide in companions or to seek aid from quacks, 
thereby being led to believe themselves in a condition 
of ill-health instead of being led to realise that they are 
merely passing through a rather trying time in a per- 
fectly normal development. 

If, therefore, parents or other adults responsible for 
the way in which the lives of boys and girls under their 
care develop, are to have that frankness of relation 
with them, and are to instil that confidence in their 
minds which shall facilitate approach to this subject 



62 CARE OF CHILDREN 

of puberal change, it is most important that the early 
instruction concerning parenthood should have already 
been given. Experience shows that those children 
who are instructed early, before ten or twelve years of 
age, receive this information in a healthy, matter-of- 
fact way ; while those who are first informed at, pr just 
before, puberty tend to brood over the knowledge that 
comes to them, to be depressed or morbid ; and when 
one realises the general condition of disturbed psychic 
and physical nature at this time, one can understand 
how this morbidness may arise. 

The occurrence of the first menstrual flow in girls 
and the first seminal emission in boys is often accepted 
as the indication that puberal change has set in, but, 
as has already been explained, the inner physiological 
workings concerned with the coming into functional 
activity of the racial organs have begun much earlier, 
bringing about many conditions by which the approach 
of puberty may be recognised. Some of the signs are 
physical, others of a psychological nature. 

The girl begins to drop some of her tomboyish ways, 
to be shy and reserved, perhaps in some cases alternating 
this with a curious forwardness in behaviour. She is 
often overcome by fits of depression of unaccountable 
origin. She may be moody, gay, intensely emotional, 
and intensely religious by turns ; is frequently irritable 
and difficult to understand. Often she is easily tired, 
and may suffer from so-called ' growing pains,' and 
show a tendency to ' outgrow her strength.' The 
specific changes in bodily form which were outlined in 
an earlier chapter begin to show themselves ; a temporary 
disordered condition of the complexion sometimes 
occurs, generally to pass away in a year or so, perhaps 



CARE OF CHILDREN 63 

less. Some girls pass through this transitional stage 
with little or no apparent dislocation of their ways, 
thoughts, and physical condition ; others suffer more 
or less in the directions outlined above. In any case, 
this period of growth is one which calls for special care 
— not necessarily obtrusive supervision, which may lead 
to oppressive coddling, but for a watchfulness and 
understanding which will be ready to detect any signs 
of incoming weakness, and ready to supply the necessary 
corrective and preventive nurture. 

The first appearance of menstrual flow may be slight, 
and its recurrence is not always regularly periodic 
during the first year. Girls should be instructed in the 
necessary personal hygiene (see Appendix), and given 
advice on the way of living at that time. They should 
be led to understand the intrinsic significance of the 
change, and from that to regard it in a reverent way, 
and to realise the importance of not imposing undue 
strain upon themselves, mentally or physically, during 
the few days when rest is an aid towards perfection of 
health. Not that it is necessary or advisable (in normal 
cases) to rest to the extent of staying in bed during the 
period ; that is likely to lead to an unhealthy condition 
of coddling and weakened self-reliance, for in spite of 
the disorders which so frequently afflict girls at this 
time, one has to recognise that the function of menstrua- 
tion is a normal phenomenon, and should take place 
without any discomfort or disability ; in fact, some 
authorities are inclined to view the phenomenon in the 
light of physiological condition, holding that, the body 
being in a condition of anabolism (i.e. is in a condition 
to construct tissue and produce energy more than is re- 
quired by the immediate needs of the individual), a woman 



64 CARE OF CHILDREN 

should be capable of the best of achievement at this 
time ; and that, though one does not find the majority of 
women in this happy state of perfect health, the various 
ills which so often accompany the periodic functioning 
are to be attributed to the cumulative effect of genera- 
tions of ill-advised custom in clothing and habits. 

A girl, then, should be ready to lead a less strenuous 
life at this time, to forego violent physical exercise 
— hockey, tennis, swimming, and so forth — for a few 
days ; not to take very long and tiring walks, but a 
gentle, short walk is often beneficial and stimulative. 
She should in no way be encouraged to regard herself 
as an invalid ; nothing is more debilitating than that 
such a view of the case should be allowed to dominate. 
She should simply know that in the interests of her 
perfect development towards a happy and healthy 
womanhood, she should make no extreme demands 
upon her physique and mentality. If care is taken to 
establish the function well and healthily during the 
first two years, little trouble is likely to develop in later 
years. This is a point to bear in mind, for so often 
girls suffer little or no inconvenience during the first 
years of puberal development, and so often they are 
inclined to over-exert themselves (in their shyness) for 
the sake of keeping up appearances, that they impose 
no restriction upon their activities, and so sow the seeds 
of weakness which leads to the greater suffering of 
early womanhood. 

The foregoing applies, of course, to normal develop- 
ment. Girls who are inclined to be weakly, to grow 
rapidly, and to show various conditions of ill-health or 
debility, will need more careful management, often 
based upon medical advice, to see them safely through ; 



CARE OP CHILDREN 65 

for, as has already been pointed out, this period is one 
fraught with many dangers, and it is likely to see the 
outbreak of any inherent weakness. 

Girls who are living at home need not be troubled 
with advice on the management of their health till the 
time arrives for its application, provided that they are 
wisely forewarned that this time will arrive ; but the 
young girl going away from home, to boarding-school, 
should not be allowed to face possible precocious 
happening without being forewarned, and advised as 
to measures to adopt. All this may be done wisely 
and well by the mother who understands her daughter 
and who appreciates the importance of health, desiring 
her happiness in everything. The young girl who is 
indebted, therefore, to such careful mother-love will be 
little likely ,to regard the function in a wrong light or 
to make it the subject of free and undesirable con- 
versation. 

Much of what has been said about the general con- 
ditions of body and mind associated with the dawn of 
puberty in girls applies also to boys, for the cause — 
the coming into function of the racial organs — is 
biologically the same. In a boy, the approach of 
this time is revealed by the ' breaking * of the voice, 
and about this time he is likely to experience his first 
involuntary emission and violent dreams. It is import- 
ant that he should know that these emissions are likely 
to begin to occur when he is about thirteen or fourteen 
years of age, and that he should also know their import, 
that they are the first stages towards a vigorous and 
healthy manhood, and that they are perfectly natural, 
being just a normal overflow of semen which is not 
required in the body. They occur normally once a 
5 



66 CARE OF CHILDREN 

week or once a fortnight, generally during sleep, and 
will periodically occur also during youthhood and 
manhood ; they are accompanied by strange, acute 
sensations in the racial organs. 

At this time boys often grow very rapidly and are, 
like girls, inclined to outgrow their strength. They 
need plenty of sleep, fresh air, good, wholesome, un- 
stimulating diet, loose, warm clothing, light in weight, 
regular physical exercise and games, and definite mental 
occupation ; but if there is any tendency towards 
physical or mental weakness, and if conditions of ill- 
health, of general unfitness to meet the ordinary demands 
of everyday life, are evident, medical advice sought in 
such cases will often be to the advisability of lessening 
mental strain (removing the boy from school or relieving 
him from home-work) and of increasing the amount of 
outdoor life and occupation. 

It is quite possible, indeed usual, according to the 
experience of those who endeavour to instruct their 
boys and girls in these matters concerning their health, 
that each sex usually asks questions concerning the 
other — a thoroughly natural interest for an intelligent 
girl or boy to take. So opportunity arises for simple 
information concerning the other sex to be given, so 
that in boys a more sympathetic and appreciative 
attitude towards womankind and maternity may de- 
velop, and in girls the way may be prepared for an 
understanding of the trials which the grand gift of sex 
may impose upon mankind. 

These years of puberal change, because of the very 
sensitive condition of the racial organs, and of the 
physical occurrences which naturally tend to focus 
attention on those parts, and also because of the general 



CARE OF CHILDREN 67 

incoming sensitiveness of the whole nervous system, 
ar6 liable to be the starting-point of the habit of self- 
abuse, if indeed it has not been learnt earlier in life. 
In some cases the discovery may be due to some acci- 
dental condition of irritation ; in others, children learn 
from one another : young boys are often misled by 
older ones into this and other undesirable sex habits — 
a great reason for supervising carefully the friendships 
of little boys. Older boys do not naturally find pleasure 
or intelligent satisfaction in the companionship of 
those much younger, and one may be warned to in- 
vestigate, tactfully, the nature of any such friendship. 
With girls such a friendship between an older and 
younger girl need not be considered as suspect in absence 
of any definite reason for suspicion, for the natural 
expressiveness of the maternal instinct often leads 
older girls to ' mother ' young ones, this being, of 
course, quite distinct from the foolish affectations of 
sentiment alism — ' Schwdrmerei, 9 as our German neigh- 
bours, in whose schools they are so very prevalent, 
name them — that are so frequently the distress and 
anxiety of the schoolmistress. 

Masturbation is very prevalent ; it passes through 
schools in waves : at one period a school may be entirely 
free from trouble, at other times permeated by it. 
Often the whole of the infection may be traced to one 
instigator. This is more to be found in boarding- 
schools where so many members of one sex are herded 
together in conditions opposed to nature's dictates ; 
one is inclined to realise the development of masturba- 
tion as being a possible perversion of sex instinct which 
is denied a normal diffusive outlet in society and 
companionship of the other sex. 



68 CARE OP CHILDREN 

Teachers should therefore be warned to supervise the 
friendships of their pupils and to be ready to take pre- 
ventive measures against the possible development of 
undesirable sex practices ; supervision of lavatories 
and water-closets, of dormitories and bedrooms is a 
wise preventive measure to adopt. Single beds should 
be the rule.* 

Self-abuse is most frequently practised in bed, but 
also may occur during the day : many devices, such 
as pressing up against furniture, sitting cross-legged and 
swaying rhythmically, contracting the thigh muscles, 
passing the hand into the trouser pocket, sitting on 
one foot, and so on, may be employed for producing 
stimulation. But the majority of these may be circum- 
vented by the establishment of good rules for class and 
home discipline, e.g. any deviation from a good sitting 
or standing posture should be immediately corrected. 
Little children in the infants' classes, the kindergarten, 
and preparatory schools should always be taught to 
rest the hands on the desk (in sight, therefore, of the 
teacher) when they are not otherwise employed in 
legitimate school occupation. Immediate distraction, 
too, is often a helpful corrective ; a child behaving 
unhealthily should be asked to run some little errand, 
or to undertake a piece of work which involves change 
of position and demands its whole attention, and in 
this way a perfectly unobtrusive, yet withal successful, 
correction may be made. Lessons, particularly in the 
lower classes of the school, should not involve a long 
period of sitting still, for the muscular and nervous 
fatigue, which so set in, have often a detrimental effect 
on the habit-life. Prevention is better than cure ; 
much may be done by an intelligent understanding of 



CARE OF CHILDREN 69 

these aspects of child-life to make for prevention. 
General hygienic rules of life should be followed : light, 
unstimulating diet — some authorities recommend that 
no meat should be taken after midday; clothing 
should be loose, light in weight, clean, and though 
warm, not of the type to produce overheating — the 
same applies to bedding; plenty of fresh air, night 
and day ; regularity of exercise and employment ; 
healthy occupation of interests ; complete bodily 
cleanliness ; cold water baths ; no means of luxurious 
or sensuous living. 

And when the question of cure has to be faced, the 
same general rules of healthy living aid. One has to 
remember that the great majority of children who may 
do this thing have absolutely no idea that they are 
doing anything that is wrong ; any shame which they 
may feel about its practice is, in all probability, due 
to their mental association of ideas, having a wrong 
way of viewing the excretory functions of the body. 
Punishment, therefore, should never be resorted to as 
a means of cure ; it simply leads to further conceal- 
ment and deception ; in particular, corporal punish- 
ment should be avoided ; it is directly harmful and 
provocative of further stimulation. There are many 
arguments against corporal punishment, and not the 
least important, although the least mentioned, is this, 
the unhealthily stimulative effect it may produce. 

There are no absolutely definite symptoms which 
indicate that the child or adolescent may be addicted 
to the habit, though there are symptoms which, in the 
absence of any other known causative factor, may be 
indicative, and may lead the parent or teacher to be 
alert in watching the habits of children they are anxious 



70 CARE OF CHILDREN 

about. Certain symptoms do often accompany the 
practice : redness of the eyelids, lassitude, chlorosis, 
and anaemia, inability to concentrate, cold, clammy 
hands, dry skin which often splits round the base of 
the nails, various symptoms of nervous overstrain, 
indigestion, a secretive look about the eyes, a desire 
for solitariness and inactivity ; at the same time, it 
is perfectly evident that each of the above conditions 
may be due to some entirely different cause of ill -health ; 
and, moreover, there are many cases of its practice where 
the child or adolescent is to all appearances absolutely 
muscularly strong and mentally and physically healthy. 
So that it will be seen that actual observation of and 
confession of the practice are the only real foundation 
one has to go upon. Observation may give one con- 
fidence to question the child whose ways cause anxiety ; 
at the same time, one must be warned that habits of 
secretiveness and untruthfulness often follow in train, 
making it difficult to get at the truth ; and, moreover, 
such questioning must be carried out with the greatest 
care, tact, and sympathy, otherwise injudicious question- 
ing might stimulate the very consciousness one would 
wish to avoid. To obtain a cure, in addition to the 
provision of hygienic conditions of life, the parent (or 
responsible parent-substitute) should talk privately to 
the child, explaining the nature of the wrong-doing. 
To those readers who have grasped the part played by 
the racial organs, and who understand the role of the 
internal secretions, it should prove a simple task to 
present these facts in simple, well-chosen language, 
and to show that any over-stimulation of the racial 
organs is likely to cause wastage of that energising 
fluid — the internal secretion of the racial organs. The 



CARE OF CHILDREN 71 

function of this secretion is, as we have already seen, 
threefold : to stimulate the development of latent 
secondary sexual characters both physical and mental, 
to nourish the sexual glands, to stimulate the nervous 
zone of the racial glands. If, therefore, an undue demand 
upon the internal secretion is made in the direction of 
nervous stimulation of the genital zone (as in self -abuse) 
the other destinations of the internal secretion are likely 
to be ineffectively accomplished. In healthy boys and 
men, a natural emission of semen occurs whenever 
there is a surplus beyond the bodily requirements, and 
an unnatural emission such as is brought about by 
masturbation is therefore depriving the body of much 
that in the ordinary course would go towards its benefit. 
In both sexes the undue stimulation leads to a mis- 
direction of physical and nervous energy, and is likely 
to be associated with, possibly largely responsible for, 
various conditions due to lack of physical and nervous 
1 tone ' ; lack of energy, muddy complexion, indigestion, 
and constipation, general debility, and so forth . Opinion 
varies greatly as to the actual harmful results on the 
body in general and the nervous system in particular, 
and how far cause and effect inter-react — how far, for 
example, one may attribute nervous weakness to self- 
abuse, and self -abuse to nervous weakness. One 
should, therefore, guard against accepting the extreme 
and sensational statements of evil results of self-abuse, 
and see to it that the boys under one's care are not 
exposed to the terrifying and anxiety-producing effect 
of such statements. The great appeal should be made 
on the moral side. The body may or may not suffer, 
but the mind and character most surely are liable to 
impairment. Lack of self-reliance, inability to con- 



72 CARE OF CHILDREN 

centrate attention upon one matter for any length of 
time, impoverishment of memory, loss of quick-witted- 
ness are some of the results likely to be associated with 
impaired nervous energy. Then comes the moral 
weakness which assuredly follows constant yielding to 
temptation, and which is the outcome of constant 
indulgence in sensual thoughts and feelings. It is a 
misuse of energy— the sex energy — which should be 
concentrated and conserved, in order that the boy and 
the girl may grow to their fullest powers of manhood 
and womanhood, and may then express it in the service 
of the race. It ia here that the great appeal may be 
made in endeavour to reveal the altruism of self-control 
as opposed to the selfishness of self-indulgence. 

Such an. appeal needs constant reinforcement : the 
child who fails in self-control should not be blamed, 
but rather encouraged towards fresh effort, and re- 
encouraged by various devices, after each failure. The 
relation of self-control to tho problems of sex will be 
dealt with in a later chapter. 

It often happens that the lapse into self-abuse is 
temporary, passing away as the general sensitiveness 
of puberal change becomes merged into adolescence. 
It also happens that some pathological condition may 
be the cause of self -abuse ; hence if, in spite of per- 
sistent sympathetic effort to influence the child towards 
self-control, and in spite of effort made by the child 
to obtain self-control, the habit still persists, medical 
advice should be sought. Medical treatment is fre- 
quently necessary to cope with obstinate cases. 

A curious reaction which self -abuse generally brings 
about is to be found in the stimulation of erotic thoughts : 
in some cases there is no physical act at all, merely the 



CARE OF CHILDREN 73 

mental dissipation of allowing the thoughts to wander 
aimlessly round sex subjects ; the existence of this 
psychic form of self-abuse should be recognised, for it 
is just as pernicious in effect as, if not more so than, 
physical indulgence. 

How far it may be necessary and advisable to warn 
boys and girls against self-abuse is a question which 
must necessarily be settled for individual cases. Those 
children who have been wholesomely and adequately 
instructed in all matters concerning the care of the 
body, and who have been taught the facts concerning 
parenthood, and who lead more or less sheltered lives 
under the constant care of their parents and teachers, 
will usually be sufficiently fortified against temptation, 
because the reserve and reticence which should accrue 
from such training should render them unlikely subjects 
for objective temptation ; or, at any rate, they should 
need just the incidental word of caution against un- 
necessary touching of that part of the body. But 
boys and girls who are destined to greater social exposure, 
who may be going away from home to boarding-school, 
or who may be going out into the world to work, stand 
in need of more definite caution against possible tempta- 
tion ; but in all cases it should be gently, frankly, and 
briefly given * : there is no necessity to dwell upon the 
matter, but the girl or boy should be given to know 
that if they are in any need of help, of advice, or 
sympathy, they may return to the same source for it. 

We must, however, realise that whatever it may be 

necessary to consider in regard to warning and to cure, 

the great aim is prevention — prevention by careful 

interest in all that concerns the well-being of the children 

1 See Appendix, p. 260 seq., for suggestions. 



74 CARE OF CHILDREN 

under our care, and by wholesome instruction in ail 
matters pertaining and contributing to that well-being. 

Before departing from the more purely physical 
aspect of supervision of child-life, a word may be said 
in regard to physical exercise. This always has its 
very great value in the moulding of boy-life, but at 
the present day runs the risk of being misunderstood 
in its application to girls. Physical training for 
girls should be calculated to promote good muscular 
tone, this in its turn reacting upon the nervous 
system ; it should be calculated to strengthen those 
muscles which are conspicuously weak in girls, the 
muscles of the back and of the abdomen 1 ; it should 
train in precision of movement and quick response 
and alertness ; and should be a means of imbuing the 
movements with graceful and rhythmic control. Boys 
and girls have absolutely different parts to fulfil in life, 
a point which should be well in mind when the question 
of physical training is to be considered, and which leads 
one to ponder over the advisability of * mixed hockey,' 
and to wonder whether the moral advantages derived 
from such co-practice of athletics may not be out- 
weighed by the physical disadvantage of imposing upon 
the feminine organism more strain than it should be 
called upon to bear, and by training the direction of the 
girl's physiological activities away from those functions 
which it is her biological responsibility to fulfil. 

The abdominal muscles are of very great importance 

1 Cases of spinal curvature are much more common among girls 
than among boys, the great majority of cases occurring between the 
ages of ten and fifteen (Saleeby, Woman and Womanhood). See 
also an article on " Spinal Deformity in Schoolgirls," by Dr. 
Swietochowski, in School Hygiene, February 1914, in which this fact 
is emphasised. 



CARE OF CHILDREN 75 

to womanhood. Swimming is one of the best exercises 
to strengthen these muscles and those of the back. 
There seems to be a great consensus of opinion that 
this weakness of back and abdominal musculature which 
seems so typical of girls is largely due to the cumulative 
effect of generations of unsuitable clothing, tight and 
heavy, preventing free development of these muscles, 
and causing a great strain upon the muscles of the 
hips. Girls should wear loosely-made garments, with 
the weight suspended from the shoulders. Very few 
little girls ask to be allowed to wear corsets ; it is 
generally suggested to them that the time has come for 
them to put away childish things, among them, rational 
stays and suspenders ; and the majority of girls, though 
they become used to the infliction, and may later in 
life feel dependent upon the support afforded, find the 
change, at first, most uncomfortable and restrictive. 
The * childish things ' should be allowed to remain, and 
with them a healthy, sensible opinion on the subject 
of clothing should be allowed to form itself — an opinion 
which would not allow itself to be overcome by absurd 
convention nor by the dictates of Fashion's extremists. 



CHAPTER V 

Supervision — Psychological Aspect 

Once the period of puberal change is past, the body 
settles down into a regular rate of growth and develop- 
ment towards the adult condition. This takes place 
slowly, though more speedily in girls than in boys, 
the girl reaching adulthood by the time she is about 
twenty-three years of age, the boy not till he is about 
twenty-five. So that the prime problem of youthhood 
comes to be one of mental nature ; concerning the 
emotional life, the psychic, the moral, and the ideal. 
During adolescence the social instincts manifest them- 
selves very strongly ; the direction of their activity 
is to be determined. Thoughts of life-work urge them- 
selves forward in the youth of ambitious and independent 
desire, , or are impelled forward by a coining social or 
domestic necessity. We adults are so prone to forget 
our own youthhood days, a memory of which would 
help us so greatly in our attempt to sympathise with 
the mental condition of those who are young. We are 
distressed at adolescent conduct ; we jeer at the foolish- 
ness of youth ; we depreciate the value of their 
imaginings, and their early attempts at self-realisation ; 
we have not the foresightedness to see in the small 
beginnings the possibility of greatness, and through our 

lack of sympathetic insight we may often be responsible 

7 6 



SUPERVISION— PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT 77 

for driving the sensitive adolescent back into his shell of 
reticence, or only to his peers for advice. All this because 
we forget the days of our youth, or have not the power 
of looking back to see them in proper perspective value. 
Who would guide, direct, and influence aright, who would 
safeguard from possible dangers and aid the youth to 
steer his course safely through, must understand both 
the nature and the needs of adolescence. 

We have already discussed the mental and physical 
condition of the period, and trust thereby to have paved 
the way for suggestions bearing on the care of youth. 
It is essentially a period during which habits, mental 
and physical, sown in earlier life may be strengthened 
and persistently rooted. It is a period during which 
the physiological habits may be trained and established, 
a point of particular importance in regard to girl -life. 
Walter Heape points out the importance of training and 
directing a girl's physiological habits during adolescence, 
so that conservation of nutriment (essential to successful 
motherhood) and development of the maternal organs 
come as a natural physiological habit. It is greatly 
important, therefore, that during adolescence no extreme 
demand should be made upon the girl's physical and 
mental resources, such as would impoverish her essential 
womanhood. Mr. Heape is, if one may presume to 
venture on a comment, somewhat too fearful of the 
possible results of overwork at school, muscular training, 
and physical exercise ; he seems to neglect to consider 
in full proportion the natural anabolic tendency of 
femaleness which enable* a woman to accomplish 
maternity, and which therefore will permit of her doing 
efficiently other things when maternity is making no 
demand upon her. The great care should be that 



78 SUPEKVISION— PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT 

her natural tendency to plus-ness should not be re- 
duced by overwork in any direction to a minus-ness. 
A woman should be well educated, well trained 
physically, encouraged to take full opportunity for self- 
expression, whether it be in the field of labour or in the 
home, should realise her scope and her possibilities, 
and know that there is a deep, fundamental biologic 
difference distinguishing her from man, and that 
therefore there can be no question of comparison in 
duties and obligations : there can only be recognition of 
essential difference in needs, in expression, and in life. 

When, in the preceding chapter, the question of 
physical training for girls was raised, it was largely in 
pursuance of this thought, that in such bodily exercise 
there should be no over-direction of the stream of nutri- 
ment and of energy away from its biologically destined 
route. The plan of physical exercise for girls, therefore, 
should be so formulated, that it may provide, in- 
directly, the right stimulus towards physiological per- 
fection of function. 

Just as the bodily forces may be insensibly directed 
aright by those who understand the inspiration of their 
work, so may the psychological problems (which are 
particularly urgent during adolescence) be aided towards 
solution in an indirect yet wholly valuable way. In the 
main, their solution lies in sublimation of sex energy. 
The great causes for anxiety which distress parents 
(and parent-substitutes) are generally due to partial 
or unsuccessful sublimation of this life-force, or, maybe, 
to its perversion ; greatly might these conditions have 
been avoided had the adolescent had the benefit of 
corrective and preventive social and mental nurture, 
" training them into the perfect exercise and kingly 



SUPERVISION— PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT 79 

continence of their bodies and souls. It is a painful, 
continual, difficult work ; to be done by kindness, by 
watching, by warning, by precept, and by praise- 
but, above all — by example." x 

In many girls' schools, particularly in boarding- 
schools, it becomes the fashion to indulge in highly 
sentimental friendships. I use the phrase ' becomes the 
fashion ' because I am convinced that when a wave of 
this sentimentality passes through a school its origin 
may be traced to one or two girls only — and many who 
follow do so in imitativeness. Some girls ' gush ' over 
one another, giving presents, flowers ; in other cases, 
a teacher is the object of this display. One must, of 
course, discriminate wisely between what is a well- 
founded affection and what is spurious affectation or 
sentimentality : the former is rarely demonstrative, and 
is the inspiration, very often, of good conduct. It is 
possible to prevent very largely a state wrong of affairs 
overwhelming the school community by certain judicious 
organisation of school life and school employment : no 
two girls, for instance, to share the same bedroom or to 
occupy adjoining cubicles for more than a term ; each 
girl to have a different ' partner for the walk ' each 
day, this to be regulated strictly ; it may be the school 
custom that all duties and pleasures which might be 
shared by t,/o girls should come under this regulation 
of sequence of partners. In this and ways similar 
which will recommend themselves to the Principal 
and staff of a school, much may be done unobtrusively 
to prevent the formation of sentimental friendships, 
while the real, well-founded affection will survive such 
inhibitory obstacles. This homo-sexual tendency is, 
1 Ruskin, The Crown of Wild Olive. 



80 SUPERVISION-PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT 

after all, a perversion of the normal sex interest, and 
is largely to be attributed to the unnatural conditions 
of segregation of the sexes which obtain in most board- 
ing-schools. If, therefore, provision could be made for 
boys and girls to meet together in school social functions 
in a healthy way of companionship, a very efficient aid 
towards ' good tone ' would be obtained. 

Boy-and-girl love affairs are a constant source of 
perplexity and anxiety. This is a matter to be decided 
on very carefully : no rash judgment or condemnation 
should be passed. We are facing, now, the development 
of the normal sex impulse, and we must remember that 
the racial organs and the racial instinct are of tremend- 
ous important effect upon the ego. Sex development is 
the greatest of all stimuli to bodily and mental develop- 
ment. If, therefore, any inhibition of sex development 
takes place, mental development will concomitantly be 
impeded, and suffer. 

It is perfectly natural that boys and girls should 
take an interest in one another, but one must admit 
that this interest has been, usually, most perniciously 
fostered and forced into precocity by unwise adults f 
who so frequently joke about the ' sweethearts J their 
little daughters have, or tease their young sons about 
c being fond of the girls.' The little ones have barely 
left babyhood, when in some homes they are subjected 
and exposed to this absurd and harmfully suggestive 
conversation. 

If boys and girls could grow up together, to meet, 
play, and work in social companionship, exposed to no 
insidious or blatant suggestion that their acquaintance 
meant aught unusual, and if, growing up side by side, 
they are led to self-knowledge, imbued with self-respect 



SUPERVISION—PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT 81 

and sex respect, then a healthy companionship will 
come. It may see the beginnings of adolescent love, 
but if each is safeguarded by knowledge and respect, 
and if each is slowly evolving an ideal, as all adolescents 
should, little, if any, harm is likely to accrue. Here, 
though, as in all phases we have been considering, 
conduct may be largely a question of temperament, 
and that which might severely test one would be of no 
moment to another. Many girls who have not had the 
good fortune to have their thoughts and conduct directed 
aright, and who may have a strongly sexual nature, 
are inclined to be forward, obtrusive, * flighty.' There 
is great need for getting such girls to reconsider their 
ways ; so, too, with the licentiously-bent boy. Each, 
with that curious psychological precision, almost in- 
variably finds its * bird of a feather,' and though the 
first steps of acquaintance may be apparently harmless 
enough, mere hoydenishness, frivolity, and forwardness, 
should there be a strong element of sexuality in the 
temperament, much harm and loose conduct may 
follow, for which the boy may not be entirely to blame. 
For girls often are quite unaware that, by apparently 
harmless ways, of conduct, of speech, or of dress, they 
may do much to make male self -restraint a difficult task, 
such are the subtleties of emotional reaction. Two 
strong lines of thought are apparent. The one, that it 
is greatly important to train girls to combine with a 
serene and sturdy independence of habit and thought, 
a discreet and unpro vocative demeanour ; the other, to 
so train boys that their sex emotions be habitually 
under control, immune, and not likely to respond 
exuberantly to any provocation circumstance may 
offer. Boys and girls whose conduct is inspired by an 
6 



82 SUPERVISION— PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT 

ideal and based upon self-knowledge will be little likely 
to fall into regrettable conduct, but with the frivolous 
girl, living more or less for excitement, and with the 
licentiously-inclined boy, imperilling social conduct, 
the case is different. Only will an adviser who has been 
able to gain the respect and confidence of such adolescents 
be likely to be given a hearing ; the ' guide, counsellor, 
and friend ' must be possessed of patience and forbear- 
ance, tact in facing disappointment and providing re- 
encouragement, self-reliance based upon a knowledge 
of the facts of life, and, above all, a knowledge of the 
social and home conditions which surround those 
whom they would help. It is of little avail suggesting 
to a young couple that they should carry on their 
sweethearting at home instead of in the streets, when 
' home 5 consists of two rooms to be shared by a family 
of six ! Advice must be tempered by help ! 

" It would be well," said Edmond Holmes, " if our 
moralists could realise that the chief causes of weakness 
in the presence of sensual temptation are, on the one 
hand, boredom and ennui, and, on the other hand, 
flabbiness and degeneracy of spiritual fibre, and that 
the remedy for both these defects is to give the young 
the type of education which will foster rather than 
hinder growth." x 

Let us, therefore, consider some aspects of this " type 
of education." The psychology of adolescence lays 
bare the material upon which we have to work, the 
nature of the spirit whose growth must be * fostered.' 
Extreme vigour of interests, ready receptivity of ideas, 
abounding expansiveness of imagination, youthful 
turbulence of emotion — all these conditions aid towards 
1 What Is and What Might Be, Edmond Holmes, p. 282. 



SUPERVISION— PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT 83 

the making or the marring of the ego. Temperament 
is, as McDougall points out, largely a matter of bodily 
constitution. The great bodily organs exercise upon 
the mental life a very important influence. Not only 
does perfect body functioning aid towards mental 
health by inducing an objective frame of mind, but 
with a knowledge of the part played by the internal 
secretions of the glandular organs, we can appreciate 
more fully the formation of the temperamental product 
as a complex of factors of bodily origin. Mental and 
bodily vigour are greatly enhanced by the internal 
secretionary product of the racial organs. If the 
force of this stream of energy is not allowed a diffusive 
outlet in terms of intellectual and physical expression, 
it tends to find expression through the racial organs 
themselves, leading to more or less sexuality of feeling. 
Just as it is possible so to train the physiological habits 
that the stream of nutriment and of bodily energy 
naturally finds its right biologic destination, so also 
is it possible to habituate the psychological activities 
to certain paths, in short, to beat out psychological 
tracks along which constant sublimation of energy will 
take place. Men and women who have led a severely 
intellectual life since puberty usually effect great sub- 
limation of sex energy ; much, however, depends upon 
temperament : a nature unduly tending towards sex 
excitement may overcome and discipline the tendency 
by intellectual exercise, thus finding a wholesome outlet 
for what might, to the detriment of the individual, be 
superfluous sex energy. 

Sublimation does not involve waste, merely change 
of mode of expression, conservation to the functioning 
of the individual. Racial energy is too precious a 



84 SUPERVISION— PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT 

heritage to be eliminated. But in the interests of the 
individual, of society and of the race, it is better that 
its direct expression in sex activity be conserved, 
and that its superabundance be transmuted, effectively 
to the improvement of the individual, thus to the benefit 
of the race. 

So it behoves us to consider how the lives of boys 
and girls may be inspired and directed towards this 
constant sublimation of sex energy. Sympathy with 
the' psychological condition of adolescence is essential 
if one's effort is to be of any avail— a sympathy 
which will understand, yet not pamper, which will 
guide and encourage, yet not force, and which will 
provide indirectly for the growth of moral stamina. 
Training in psychological habit is the great aim. 
This, the provision of mental hygiene, is infinitely of 
value. 

Regular occupation of the mind, providing outlet 
for mental activity in the many diverse ways which 
youthhood demands, is a great prophylactic. When 
ordinary school employments yield place to leisure 
hours, these hours should be profitably occupied, mono- 
polised by interests of a play or social nature which 
may make just as vigorous a demand upon the activities 
as does ordinary school work. Athletics and other 
forms of physical exercise and games should occupy 
no small part of the adolescent's leisure hours, promot- 
ing, as they do, bodily and mental tone. The boy or 
girl who would rather stay indoors, lounging on a sofa 
reading, or morbidly day-dreaming, is not in a healthy 
state of body nor of mind, and in absence of any definite 
condition of physical ill-health, diagnosed, of course, by 
medical authority, one would be inclined to regard such 



SUPERVISION-PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT 85 

a dislike for the ordinary vigorous mode of life which 
normal adolescence demands and enjoys, as indicative 
of self-abuse or psychic onanism. It may be well 
here to point out that it is unwise to allow girls to 
spend long hours sitting at monotonous work, like 
knitting or simple needlework, such as makes no demand 
upon the thinking apparatus and can be performed 
automatically, for such monotony of occupation is a 
veritable pitfall to the girl of neurotic tendency, whose 
thoughts may be inclined towards morbidity or to 
wander to sex subjects. Lengthy devotion to mono- 
tonous employment is natural to and expected of an old 
lady, but is abnormal to young girls, and should there- 
fore be discouraged. 

The normal spirit of healthy adolescence, is a generous 
one, fully given, fully expressed. Where the sym- 
pathies and desires are aroused, interest is spontane- 
ous and exuberant. Witness the wholeheartedxtess 
with which the boy throws himself into his football or 
his collection of butterflies or of birds' eggs. Witness 
the thoroughness with which the little boy fills his 
pockets with pebbles, string, an odd engine-wheel, a 
screw, a bit of candle, an empty matchbox, and all the 
paraphernalia of a young boy's play that an ordinary- 
sized pocket will accommodate. Witness the devotion 
with which the little girl cares for her dolls, with which 
the older girl follows her fancy work, her tennis, her 
domestic or feminine interests. 

All girls have not the same interests, of course, nor 
do all boys find pleasure in the same leisure occupations. 
But whatever be the claim, the child and the adolescent 
tend to fulfil it generously, wholeheartedly, and con- 
centratedly for the time being. Much of this leisure 



86 SUPERVISION— PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT 

occupation tends to be of self-interest, being a mode of 
unconscious progression towards self-realisation. But 
social and educational opinion are beginning to realise 
more and more the possibilities of leisure employment, 
that although at the time it may have an egoistic 
centre, it may be turned both directly and indirectly 
to altruistic destination. The essence of the Boy 
Scout Movement lies here ; the training is a great 
source of pleasure to the trained ; it does not come 
under their mental appraisement of c work,' carries 
with it no infliction of compulsion ; yet, based upon 
a knowledge of the psychology of boyhood and in- 
spired by the thought that " the boy is father to the 
man," the training in character, discipline, in citizen- 
ship, and patriotism that it supplies, all through volun- 
tary adoption (for no boy is compelled to become a 
Scout, he enters the brigade and leaves it at his own 
desire), is, indirectly, of altruistic destination, tending 
to the uplift of society and the improvement of the 
race. 

What the Boy Scout Movement is doing for boyhood 
(and ultimately for manhood) the Girl Guide Move- 
ment, more lately initiated and adapted to the 
psychology of girl-nature, is doing for girlhood and 
ultimately for womanhood. 

The " Camp Fire Girls " is an organisation in America 
which is conducted on lines somewhat similar to those 
of the " Girl Guide " Movement in England, though its 
work and ceremonies are carried out in a different way. 
They have a watchword, signs of communication, wear 
curious dresses and badges strongly suggestive of 
Red Indian decorations. They have regular meetings, 
camping out during the summer in the woods and fields. 



SUPERVISION— PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT 87 

At the time of writing (December 1914) the membership 
is 64,000.! 

A " Camp Fire " or branch may be formed in con- 
nection with schools, clubs, and so on, and the work of 
it is carried on under the " Guardian of the Camp 
Fire." The would-be member has to undertake to 
carry out the " Law of the Camp Fire." 

THE LAW OF THE CAMP FIRE 

Seek beauty. . . . 
Give service. . . . 
Pursue knowledge. . . . 
Be trustworthy. . . . 
Hold on to health. . . . 
Glorify work. . . . 
Be happy. . . . 

There are various ranks to which the " Camp Fire 
Girl " may attain, having to pass certain stages of pre- 
paration and certain accomplishments. The whole 
work of the organisation is based upon the idea that it 
is a woman's duty to keep the fire burning in the home, 
and the qualifications which are necessary for the attain- 
ment of certain ranks are based mainly upon domestic 
and housecraft interests. 

Much of the work is carried on out of doors and 
ensures a very healthy life. First-aid, knowledge of 
handicraft, nature lore, camping, patriotism, health, 
certain business interests, and certain hobbies which 
a girl may be desirous of pursuing, or in which she may 
be accomplished, form the subject of ' honours ' 

1 I am indebted to Dr. Luther Gulick, the President of the fct Camp 
Fire Girls," for a full account of the movement. 



88 SUPERVISION— PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT 

qualification, and each " Camp Fire Girl " is expected 
to possess a number of honours. 

The " Camp Fire Girls " Movement is not only practical 
in its aim ; it has a very important ethical side to the 
training. The " Fire Maker's Desire," one item in the 
catechism, shows this : 

"As fuel is brought to the fire 

So I purpose to bring 

My strength, 

My ambition, 

My heart's desire, 

My joy 

And my sorrow 

To the fire 

Of human kind. 

For I will tend 

As my fathers have tended 

And as my fathers' fathers 

Since time began, 

The love of man for man, 

The love of man for God." * 
While the foregoing movements have for their object 
the particular training of character, and have a deep 
social application, it is possible that other pursuits of 
girls and boys may be directed along lines of unselfish 
interest, and may so react upon the character. The 
social value of organisation, and the educational benefit 
of co-operation in object, is leading to the formation of 
girls' clubs and associations through which much ' work 

l The Camp Fire QirU (published by The National Head- 
quarters of the Camp Fire Girls, 461 Fourth Avenue, New York 
City) gives a very good account of this thoroughly valuable move- 
ment. 



SUPERVISION— PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT 89 

for others ' is done. There is a time in youthhood 
when ' gathering together ' has a great fascination : 
it is a manifestation of the 'gregarious instinct,' the 
1 clan spirit,' which is so frequently characteristic of 
early adolescence. So the formation of clubs and 
societies, the grouping together of workers with a 
common aim, besides having a social and a moral 
value, is beneficial and very acceptable in that it healthily 
gratifies a natural craving. In girls' schools the older 
girls may be appointed to ' mother ' the little ones ; 
the girls in a well-to-do school may link their interest 
with those of a poor school, undertaking to aid the poor 
children by providing clothes (of their own making from 
new material, or remaking from discarded and mended 
garments), by correspondence, by small birthday gifts 
and Christmas parcels, each girl becoming the friend 
and helper of another less fortunately situated. Again, 
some girls' schools work in connection with a settlement, 
sending the fruits of their labours ; some schools con- 
tribute a regular gift of knitted garments, to the "Deep 
Sea Fishermen's " Society or other organisations in 
need of voluntary service. 

There are many ways in which the activities of boys 
and girls, then, may be directed towards social service . 
Those who have gardens, at home or at school, may 
find an added pleasure in their gardening when they 
send their gifts of flowers to an hospital to cheer the 
patients, or to a poor school shut out, in the depths of 
a town, from nature's beauties, or when they grow 
kitchen produce and send it to needy families to whom 
the small gifts will be a great benefit. 

Even in the poorest schools this principle of " do it 
for someone else " may infuse itself into the work and 



90 SUPERVISION— PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT 

play occupations in ways which each teacher may find 
and apply in his own circumstances and in his own way. 
"It is my firm conviction that at the present day, 
three-fourths of the moral evil in the world, or at any- 
rate in the Western world, are the direct or indirect 
outcome of egoism." * 

If the natural altruism of adolescence is supplanted 
by ' malignant egoism ' of adulthood, the blame lies 
not with the adolescent, but with those elders whose 
influence might have been more directly stimulative 
and encouraging to the growth of altruism. It is good 
for man that he should do something for others out of 
generosity of spirit. Our boys and girls should therefore 
be drawn towards the idea of taking up some honorary 
work, when they are experienced enough to serve. 
But, side by side with this desire for voluntary service, 
a broad-minded contemplation of economic problems 
should be encouraged to grow, so tnat no voluntary 
service should be proffered or requested which would 
lead to the usurpation of paid labour. 

Motherhood itself demands great sacrifice — sacrifice 
of body, of desires, of spirit ; it may be that the physio- 
logical basis o'f sacrifice is correlated with the natural 
disposition of womanhood towards self -giving. Father- 
hood makes less biologic demand : hence it may be that 
the natural disposition of boyhood is less directly of 
a sacrificial trend, and hence the greater necessity for 
the cultivation of altruism in boys. Certain it is that 
thoughtlessness, selfishness, and inconsiderateness in 
regard to womanhood is very common among men, but 
this state of affairs may largely be attributed to lack of 
directive training in self-giving, to lack of knowledge 
1 Chap. vi. p. 278, Edmond Holmes, What Is and What Might Be. 



SUPERVISION— PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT 91 

concerning all that womanhood and maternity mean, 
and to a general disposition in home training to place 
and consider the interests of the boys of the family 
before those of the girls, a prejudice which is only 
beginning to be uprooted. 

To provide for educative 6 play ' and other interests 
of children and of adolescents, will, however, not be 
sufficient, for, as they grow up and away from school 
influence, perhaps rebelling against suggested home 
restriction, the question of legitimate enjoyment and 
pleasure-seeking must be considered. The mode of 
enjoyment which is chosen is chiefly a matter of in- 
clination, and what the inclinations may be will 
largely depend upon the way in which the taste 
and desires have been moulded during childhood 
and early adolescence. The safeguarding of youth 
from social perils is largely a question of their leisure 
hours. The pleasures of youth form the mainspring 
of youth's existence, pleasure in work, pleasure in 
play. Those whose work gives no cause for joy, 
whose labours are of dead, monotonous routine, 
will react all the more vigorously in their pleasure- 
seeking hours. That these may be occupied in 
wholesome pleasures is a mission for social hygiene 
to fulfil. 

If, reverting to Edmond Holmes' dictum, we are to 
avoid those factors, " boredom and ennui'' which are 
known to be so exceedingly contributory to " weakness 
in the presence of sensual temptation," it behoves us 
to form all possible links with broad intellectual and 
artistic interests. The majority of those people who 
have little interest in anything except that which im- 
mediately concerns themselves, who have no relaxation 



92 SUPERVISION—PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT 

away from the things of self, who take no joy, because 
they are dead to such possibilities, in things of beauty, 
in the revelations of the mind and soul of genius, are to 
be pitied, for their youth was denied enlightenment. 
And when any temptation, any emotional strain or 
crisis may assail them, they have no escape, no safety- 
valve, no ideas to distract their attention, and are cast 
back to find an outlet through their primitive, un- 
transmuted sex emotions. The boredom which Edmond 
Holmes fears will not be the debilitating lot of those 
who can find absorbing mental interest in literature, 
who can revel in the majesty of architectural work or 
who can absorb its historical interest, who follow the 
gleam of the artist's lamp, who respond to the musician's 
note, " claiming each slave of the sound, at a touch," 
who read " books in the running brook, sermons in 
stones, and good in everything." 

Nor will ennui be the portion of those whose thoughts 
dwell on questions of social reform, who take a living 
interest in matters political, who are ready to weigh 
the pros and cons of economic problems, and to view 
with an abiding concern and a practical outlook the 
affairs of the community and of the nation. 

In the cultivation of broad-minded interests, in the 
stimulation of an enlightened social consciousness, in 
jbhe awakening of the young mind to the beauties of art 
and the triumphs of literature, the school can play a 
leading part, in these days where so much is done to 
prepare the teacher for his work, where the specialist 
is ready to deal with his subject, where the teacher 
infuses his work with a strong missionary spirit and 
where, even in those schools which are under municipal 
or commercial authority, the Principal has great, if not 



SUPERVISION— PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT 93 

absolute, freedom in the organisation of school work. 
Visits to museums, picture galleries, public buildings, 
school debates and lectures, school journeys, school 
libraries, camping holidays, social and athletic events 
are some of the possibilities of scope which spring to 
mind ; and one can foresee great ultimate advantages 
accruing from the right installation of * free discipline ' 
and self-government. 

We may seem to have departed far from the 
subject of sex education. Yet this is not so. The 
greater part of sex education is carried out indirectly 
by those elders who understand the drift and 
import of their supervision of child-life. All organic 
life is ruled by two obligations — by two funda- 
mental instinctive cravings — hunger, the individu- 
alistic, and love, the racial. In the ordinary course 
of development and training the desire for food 
becomes regulated, and comes under the definite rules 
of habit and custom. But we do little or nothing 
voluntarily to subjugate and regulate the racial instinct ; 
this energy, during development, becomes converted 
into and expressed as various forms of intellectual and 
emotional force (cultural, social, religious, aesthetic), 
largely through the agency of culture and education ; 
that is to say, the racial energy is ' sublimated/ trans- 
formed, not eliminated. In the course of normal de- 
velopment the advent of puberty tends to intensify the 
racial energy and to lead to its concentration round the 
racial organs, and, in the absence of an established 
psychic sublimatory habit, to dominate and override 
other tendencies. Extravagant irregulation of racial 
energy leads to disaster, for the greatest gift brings the 
greatest responsibility in its train. " Very often a 



94 SUPERVISION- PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT 

bad quality is only an energy that has flown in the 
wrong direction." x 

It is, therefore, with the aim of establishing an habitual 
sublimation process that we pursue this policy of 
supervision and life-direction. " Direct man's passions 
and energies well and he mounts towards heaven ; 
suppress, pervert, and distort them and he plunges 
towards hell." 2 

Directed well, man's passions and energies go to the 
uplift of himself, thence to the service of society till, 
at the bidding of Love, they may be called to the service 
of the race. 

With a mind well furnished, a body well employed, 
the adolescent finds life very full ; there is no loophole 
for boredom and ennui supplying a chance of getting 
into mischief. Let us remember, how r ever, that youth- 
hood is leading to maturity and thoughts of marriage. 
Let us also remember that many — the majority — 
boys and girls lead busy lives not unexposed to social 
risks and to temptation, and that they therefore should 
be safeguarded by foreknowledge. If we have been 
successful in leading boys and girls to know of the facts 
concerning parenthood, and if we have been successful 
in aiding them to formulate an ideal of conduct 
involving pre-marital chastity, comparatively little 
information on the social evil will be necessary to safe- 
guard. But that little should be definite, and given in 
such a way that it will not warp the delicate sensitive- 

1 The Conflict between Love and Morality, by P. M'Carthy More 
— A. L. Humphreys. 

2 Dr. Constance Long in Treatment by Hypnotism and Suggestion, 
by C. Lloyd Tuckey. 



SUPERVISION— PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT 95 

ness of adolescence, nor imperil the ideal we would 
foster. Both boys and girls, before their emergence 
from sheltered life, should be told that there are those 
men and women who through misfortune — it may be 
through lack of guidance and counsel in their youth, 
it may be through an inherited viciousness of disposi- 
tion, it may be through some sudden and severe tempta- 
tion against which they have not been strong enough 
to stand, it may be through economic pressure due to 
ill-paid labour — whatever be the cause — through mis- 
fortune have come to lead ill-regulated lives, and have 
come to allow their sexual inclinations to dominate 
instead of to subserve ; and that the unfortunate 
women may tempt boys and men ; the unfortunate 
men may tempt girls and women. Girls should be 
warned against allowing any approach on the part 
of a stranger, whether it be man or woman : they should 
know that they should not under any circumstances, no 
matter how plausible, accompany an unknown person, 
even though they may be in clerical garb, in nurse's 
costume, or nun's habit. They will want to know the 
inevitable " why ? " and should be told that there 
are those people who, knowing of the weakness which 
afflicts those unfortunate men devoid of self-control, try 
to entrap girls to serve the purposes of these men. 

Knowledge of the existence of social diseases should 
be given in the same way, serving to inform, to safe- 
guard, yet not to destroy the ideal. Circumstance will 
largely lead the counsellor to know when is the right 
time to tell of these facts — very often a psychological 
moment will offer. In general, boys need this pro- 
tective knowledge earlier than girls : it is in the case 
of the weaker natures often an incentive towards self- 



96 SUPERVISION— PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT 

control. No girl, however, should be allowed to reach 
marriageable age and to mi* in the world without 
knowing of the existence of these diseases, and some* 
thing of their disastrous effects upon the individual and 
the race. 1 The object of giving this knowledge should 
be to strengthen the sense of personal responsibility, 
responsibility towards others, responsibility towards 
possible parenthood. It is most important that it be 
given in a broad-minded way, quite uncalculated to em- 
bitter a girl's ideas : both good and evil exist in the 
world ; we are all free to choose. Where women de- 
mand a high standard and invincibly adhere to it, that 
standard will be more nearly reached. 

Then as time goes on, Love will enter into the lives 
of our boys and girls : they will marry and receive 
the benison of love, little children. But before they 
enter into marriage there are many things they should 
know, for there are many things for husband and wife 
to consider and settle for themselves in order that the 
greatest happiness of married life maybe consummated. 
Let not, therefore, the care and guidance of youth stop 
short at adolescence. Let the mother be prepared to 
help her daughter and the father his son, remembering 
that if their children have been taught to view the great 
facts of life in the right way they will be ready to con- 
sider all things faithfully unto one another. 2 

1 See Chapter XL for fuller treatment of the subject. 

2 Woman and Marriage, by Margaret Stephens, published by 
Fisher Unwin, 3s. 6d., is a simply written volume. 



CHAPTER VI 

Nature Study in the Service of Sex Instruction 

Let us turn our thoughts now to a point to which refer- 
ence has been made already, and which now requires 
fuller treatment in order to make clear the full import 
of the suggestions which already have been made — viz. 
instruction of children in the facts and truths relating 
to parenthood. We must inform ourselves of some of the 
many instances which are at hand of parenthood among 
the lower creatures and which will serve to make facts 
clear in the mind of the child — not only facts concern- 
ing the transmission of life from one generation to 
another, but facts which may serve to bring home great 
truths. The Creator of all living things implanted 
within those living things a little of His own power : 
the power of bringing new lives into the world — and 
though in man that power has reached its highest 
possibilities of expression, it is a power which he shares 
in common with all organic life ; if, therefore, we can 
help the young mind to appreciate the universality of 
the racial powers throughout the kingdom of living 
things, to realise that each organism is, in a sense, 
the trustee only, of the spark of life,, we shall go far 
towards inducing a reverent and responsible attitude 
towards questions of sex and parenthood. 

In this chapter, therefore, I hope to show how it may 
be possible to provide for the answering of children's 
7 



98 NATUKE STUDY 

questions regarding the origin of life. It is quite 
possible that in dealing with this aspect, much more 
detail will be given than is actually needed by any one 
person attempting to answer these questions, but as it 
is the object of this work to provide information as far as 
possible to meet the needs of many people, it is necessary 
to give more than will be likely to meet the needs of 
one. No two people are likely to be plied with exactly 
the same questions from the ever-varying child mind. 
Then, again, wise instructors will make use of those 
examples which are close at hand, or by encouraging 
the children under their care to keep pets, to take an 
intelligent interest in plants, and so to bring a child's 
understanding to face the problems that present them- 
selves in a child's mind, will prepare for the day that is 
likely to come. 

It is necessary to begin very early. Perhaps many 
of us do not realise quite how early these troublesome 
questions formulate themselves in a child's mind. Dr. 
Stanley Hall, as a result of one of his inquiries, 
has shown that the majority of children ask their first 
questions relating to the origin of life between the 
ages of 3| and 8 ; so simple and so ingenuous are most 
of these early questions that perhaps we do not realise 
that they come at a psychological moment, a moment 
which should not be allowed to pass unnoticed. 

" F. 3J. Mamma, where did you get me ? 
F. 5. Where was I when you weie a little girl ? 
M. 5. Where did baby come from ? Did God 

drop baby down from the sky ? 
M. 6. Was I a speck of dust ? Did it have blood 

in it? 



M. 


7. 


F. 


6. 


F. 


7. 


M.7. 


M. 


7. 


F. 


8. 



NATURE STUDY 99 

F. 7. How did God send the baby V Did He send 
an angel down with it ? If you hadn't been 
at home, would He have taken it back ? 

Where do doctors get babies from ? 

Mamma, where do chickens get their eggs ? 

How did the expressman know where to 
leave the baby ? 

Where was I before I was born ? 

Where was I when you went to school ? 

How did you know baby was coming and 
get his clothes ready ? " * 

So often in the past it has been the custom to ignore 
or evade these early childish inquiries — perhaps through 
some feeling that the child is too young to know these 
things : though the child is certainly too young to have 
all the detail which forms an adult's knowledge, it is 
not too young to have its curiosity satisfied according 
to the measure of its capacity for understanding. Or 
perhaps it may be through some false feeling that these 
questions are of sexual import, whereas their very in- 
genuousness and openness is evidence of the fact that 
the child is approaching this mystery in the same spirit 
of healthy matter-of-fact curiosity as it approaches 
the other mysteries against which its inquiring spirit 
comes in contact. 

It is quite possible to answer these early questions 
in such a way that there is nothing to undo later, to 
answer them simply and truthfully. A little child's 
curiosity is generally easily satisfied, and its attention 
immediately turns to some other matter in hand. 

1 1 am indebted to Dr. Stanley Hall for permission to quote from 
his book, Aspects oj Child Lije and Education, published by Ginn & Co, 



100 NATURE STUDY 

Motherhood is the first fact to explain (see Appendix 
for some suggestions as to how a child's early questions 
may be met by the mother). Examine a bean-pod in 
the summer-time and see how the little baby seeds lie 
encased in soft silky down within the green-walled pod : 
see the chestnut burr, how within the prickly cup lie 
the brown-coated seeds, 1 a tough brown coat on the 
outside to keep them waterproof, and within, the soft 
brown, downy coat to keep them warm. See how the 
sycamore takes care of its seeds : curled up within the 
brown fruit ball, which has been borne down from the 
tree by a brown wing, lies a tiny green seed kept warm 
by a blanket of silky hairs around it. The apple pips 
within the strong core, or the orange pips within the 
juicy fruit, or the poppy seeds within their strong- 
walled case, or the large coconut within its horny shell 
— each and all of these show us how the new young life 
is encased within the mother's body, all show us how 
the mother plant makes provision for the safety of its 
offspring ; and when we are showing these things to 
the children, it is well to dwell upon the aesthetic side 
and upon the tender side, showing the care that is 
taken to ensure that the young lives shall be protected. 
The great fact to be grasped and learned is that living 
things only come from living things and that a new life 
begins to grow within the parent. And so it is with 
animals. Within the body of the mother bird, little 
seeds or eggs grow. Then, just as the poppy sends 
her seeds out into the world to grow, and just as the 
chestnut burr opens to give forth her nuts, so do the 

1 There is no need to split biological hairs in this early work — the 
differences between ' seed * and * fruit ' may be left to the later work 
in school. 



NATURE STUDY 101 

eggs come from the mother bird's body. And just as 
the little seeds, kept warm in the earth, fed by the 
rain, and warmed by the sun, will grow and become, 
first, little plants and then strong grown-up plants, so 
will the eggs of the bird, fed by the mother and father 
bird, cared for, and kept warm in the nest by them both, 
grow up into little birds, and in time will be big 
birds. 

Some creatures take care of their eggs in a different 
way from that in which the birds do. They keep them 
within their bodies for a time, and there, the eggs 
grow and become little animab before they come out 
into the world, but very often they are still very helpless 
and need a lot of mother's care. Guinea-pigs, rats, 
mice, cats, dogs, sheep in the fields, cows in the byre, 
the horse in the stable, are all like this. 

The great fact of motherhood, by study of tkese pets 
of the home, or by the observation of the animals kept 
on the farm and in the country, may thus establish itself 
in the child's mind as a universal law * ; and for the time 
being all is well. But the time will come when father- 
hood must be explained too, and the best way to do 
this is to have ready an adequate background for 
reference to be drawn from plant and from animal life, 
by which facts may be truly and simply dealt with. 

The preparation of such a background shoul.d be 
started long before actual reference to the details of 
human fatherhood may be required. It is most im- 
portant that in dealing with these great facts we should 
have nothing to undo, that in the child's mind there 
should be some conceptions of the ways in which life 
is transmitted from one generation to another, and 
1 See Appendix for notes on the rearing of animals. 



102 NATURE STUDY 

that these conceptions should be truth, albeit truth 
in a very simple form. 

There is another great reason for beginning very 
early. It will be remembered when we were dealing 
with the psychological aspect of child development, it 
was then pointed out how, through some mental 
c shock/ a later condition of neurosis (that is, a certain 
form of mental ill-health) may arise, owing to the way 
in which ideas or tendencies, which may be in some 
way of an unpleasing or offensive nature or association, 
become buried in or c repressed ' into the unconscious. 
So that if we are to avoid such a contingency as this 
happening in connection with sex education, it is 
essential that the knowledge concerning the facts of 
reproduction should make its way gradually and 
unobtrusively into the child's mind. There should be a 
gradual transition in information from that concerning 
simple types to those more complex ; this to be given in 
terms applicable to all, even applicable to man. If 
this is accomplished successfully, we shall then have 
the child's mind in such a position, that it may always 
appreciate the fact that living things only come from 
living things, and that also it may feel, when it comes to 
know the facts of human parenthood, that these are 
facts which it has known all along, that it has 
always realised that it takes the effort of two individuals 
to produce a new life. 

Referring back again to the psychological develop- 
ment of the child, it will be remembered that these 
years of early childhood and the early part of later 
childhood, are years which are destitute of sex emotion : 
so far as the sex feelings and impulses are concerned, 
the child is in a condition of unconsciousness. It is 



NATURE STUDY 103 

wise, therefore, that the physical facts of parenthood 
should be made known during these early non-sensitive 
years, for then the information is received in a matter- 
of-fact, unemotional way, and, curiosity being satis- 
fied, the matter is more or less dismissed from the 
mind, but, by the happy faculty of the then plastic 
memory, it is stored, to be revived later on. 

To leave dealing with these facts of parenthood 
till the end of childhood or till the early years of 
adolescence is a mistake, the whole condition then, 
bodily and mental, being, as has already been explained, 
one of extreme sensitiveness and instability, and it 
has been found by those who have talked to children on 
these matters, that this sensitive period of puberty is a 
wrong time to introduce the subject. Both girls and 
boys tend to brood over it, and girls particularly may be 
frequently depressed and morbid in the face of these new 
problems. Then, too, it may be pointed out that in the 
present condition of custom, the majority of children 
who are not wisely instructed do come to know these 
facts of life, though usually in a most unwholesome 
or, at any rate, very undesirable way. 

If the child already knows the facts of reproduction, 
it will be easier for the parent to give the forewarning 
and advice regarding the approach of puberty, to both 
girls and boys, than it would be were this previous 
knowledge not shared between them in a bond of 
confidence. So that we may take it, there is every 
argument in favour of beginning instruction very 
early, and laying down the threads which are later 
to be gathered together skilfully and woven into a 
fabric. 

Very little children can understand the process of 



104 NATURE STUDY 

seed-making if this is explained in simple terms and if 
suitable flowers are chosen as illustration. 

The Tulip is one of the best for little children to 
study, because its flower-cup is large and the racial 
organs within the flower-cup are prominent and easy 
to see. The Poppy also shows the racial organs clearly 
and well, though, of course, one has to remember the 
danger here, the poppy being poisonous. The Japanese 
Anemone, too*, is useful in this connection, there being, 
in this early stage of study, no need to consider the 
separateness of the carpels in the pistil of this flower ; 
that is a distinction that can be well dealt with in later 
work, in botany in school. Different varieties of lily 
(Lilium auratum and Lilium rubrum) are also excellent, 
but, of course, too expensive to use in large numbers for 
class-work, yet the flowers are so large and the parts 
so well formed and conspicuous that one or two flowers 
would serve very well for a number of children. Happy 
is the mother or teacher who may have these growing 
in her garden ready for study when the time comes ; 
in fact, the wise mother, the foresighted teacher, will 
see to it that they are planted in time. 

The single daffodil with its golden trumpet is another 
large flower which will serve the purpose. 

We would encourage children to study the flowers 
carefully ; to see them in their buds, watch them grow 
larger, change their colour, spread out their petals ; so 
that perhaps in later life, they may come to realise the 
preparations that must be made by all creatures for the 
work of carrying on the species. For the flower does not 
open, it does not give off its sweet perfume, till the 
racial organs are ready to perform their functions. 

In the centre of the tulip, beneath the golden bell 



NATURE STUDY 



105 



of the daffodil, is a swollen green case, the egg-case 
or ovary, and in this case lie little eggs, each of which 
will one day become a seed. But, by itself, it cannot 
become a seed. Standing round the green seed-box in the 
tulip, rising up from the yellow trumpet of the daffodil, 
are six little stalks, each bearing a little box, and when 




A, Daffodil. B, Longitudinal section of the flower, showing the 
racial organs. 

these little boxes open, yellow dust comes out of them. 
We can touch it with our fingers. This yellow dust 
consists of sperms, and one grain of this dust, that is, 
one sperm, must join with each little egg in the egg-case, 
and the two together make a seed. To cut open a 
beautiful, fresh flower is an unwelcome suggestion to 
many children, but a withered flower may often be 
used to show the * eggs ' within the ovary. 



106 



NATURE STUDY 



This is the process of fertilisation. How, though, 
does the sperm reach the egg ? The sperm is in the 
sperm-box and the egg is in the egg-box. The flowers, 
if they cannot drop their own sperms on to the egg- 
box, have to get someone to help them, and so they 




Tulip No. 

Front view of stamen. B, 
Side view. C and D, Show- 
Tulip No. 1. ing ripe, anther shedding 

pollen grains. E, Longi- 
tudinal section of stamens and 
pistil, showing ovules within 
the ovary. 

invite, by their bright colours and their sweet perfume, 
some of the insects to come and help them ; when the 
insect sees these bright flower-cups wide open and finds 
them smelling so sweetly, it flies to them, often finding, 
when it gets there, some wonderful lines to guide it — 
lines which guide it down into the flower-cup, where it 



NATURE STUDY 



107 



gets a drink of honey ; and as it goes from flower-cup 
to flower-cup, it carries with it the little sperms that the 
flowers are needing to join to their eggs. Some flowers do 
not ask the insects to help them, but they rely upon 




Diagram illustrating the Process of Fertilisation in a 
Flower. 

P.G.. Pollen grains being shed. St, Stamen unripe. P.g., Pollen 
grain on stigma, sending down the pollen-tube (P.T.), by 
which the contents of the pollen grain are conveyed to the 
egg-cell in the ovule. S, Stigma. E, Embryo-sac con- 
taining egg-cell. 0, Ovary. C, Corolla. Ca, Calyx. 

the wind, which, blowing gaily, will blow the sperms 
from one flower to another flower of the same kind. 
Tulip eggs want tulip sperms, and rose eggs want rose 
sperms, and each flower requires sperms of its own kind. 



108 NATURE STUDY 

Once the eggs have become joined to sperms, the 
flower no longer needs its bright cup nor its sweet smell, 
and so the cup withers and the flower devotes its whole 
energy to the care of its seed-babies, making often a cosy 
cradle for them and taking care that they shall reach the 
soil in which they are to grow, safely. 

The flowers that have already been mentioned are 
hermaphrodite, that is to say, two sexes are represented 
in the one flower, but there are very many types of 
flowers in which the stamens are in one flower and the 
pistil in another flower, it may be on the same plant, 
or it may be on a different plant. 

The study of some of these unisexual types will 
serve as an introduction to the idea of maleness and 
femaleness. The child has already a conception of 
what is meant by a family — father, mother, little ones — 
and as we are talking about seed families, the idea of 
* father-plant ' and * mother-plant ' should be just in 
accordance with the child's own conception of family 
life. It would be well to introduce here the words 
' male ' and ■ female,' if it has not already been done in 
the earlier study of hermaphrodite flowers. These words 
are quite simple and short, and, if they have a definite 
significance to the child, will serve a valuable purpose. 

Large unisexual flowers are not, on the whole, 
common, but we have groups of unisexual flowers which 
will serve the same purpose. The Red Campion is a 
single flower, unisexual. The Willow, Hazel, Oak, 
Dog's Mercury, Hop, have more or less conspicuous 
groups of unisexual flowers. 1 

Many of these unisexual flowers are pollinated by the 

1 A fuller list of these is given in the Appendix, together with their 
times oi flowering. 



NATURE STUDY 109 

wind. A few, e.g. Red Campion, Willow, are pollinated 
by insects. 

The Hazel * lamb's-tails ' are very conspicuous in 
February, hanging on the twigs in long yellow tassels, 
shaking from them clouds of yellow sperms. The egg- 
cases are little green buds with a bright red brush, the 
stigmas, standing out on the top ready to catch the 
sperms blown by the wind. 

The Willow has male flowers on one tree and female 
flowers on another tree, the male flowers, when they 
are ready to shed their sperms, being bright golden 
yellow (children call them ' Golden Pussy Palms ') 
and the pistillate or egg-bearing flowers are silver green 
(' Silver Pussy Palms '). On a sunny day, early in 
April or late in March, one can often watch bees flying 
from one tree to another, sipping honey as they visit 
each flower, and in their journeys carrying sperms 
from the male flowers to the female flowers. 

These are just some examples of the way in which 
the processes of fertilisation and of seed-making may be 
introduced in a simple way to the child's mind, and as 
one flower after another is studied in the ordinary 
course of work, the facts will gradually implant them- 
selves by the mere repetition of the story, which re- 
petition is so welcome to the average child's mind. 
We are all familiar with the stage through which the 
little ones pass when they love to have stories repeated 
again and again, insisting upon the tale never deviating, 
so that we need not fear that, at this stage in mental 
development, repetition of the story of seed-making 
will be unduly emphatic, more particularly if we safe- 
guard it by in no way giving undue emphasis to the 
reproductive processes, for many other phases of plant 



110 NATURE STUDY 

life may be wisely and well introduced into this early 
nature-study work. The study of how plants climb, of 
the way in which young leaves are protected, of the way 
in which seeds are dispersed, of the way in which bulbs 
gro\^, are just some among the many aspects of plant 
life which suggest themselves for this early nature-study 
work. 

The study of animal types reveals the evolution of sex. 
I do not propose to outline an exact scheme of work in 
this connection, but to give a brief account of some 
animals which lend themselves very easily and felicit- 
ously to our purpose, and to indicate how it may be 
possible to pass gradually from the study of plants, 
flowers, and seed-making to the study of animals. A 
selection of types may be made, all of which may be so 
dealt with as to form a gradual approach to the mam- 
malian animal and so to Man, for what applies bio- 
logically to the mammal applies also to Man. 

One would select the types chiefly from those which 
are in the immediate environment or which may be 
easily kept in simple aquaria or vivaria ; in fact, many 
of these suitable types can be kept and reared in an 
aquarium and, being so remote from man, are excellent 
for providing, in concrete form, analogy which may be 
utilised for later reference in explanation of human 
reproduction. 

Earthworms, water-snails, land-snails, and slugs are 
simple hermaphroditic animals, and, being hermaphro- 
dite, are easy to deal with from the point of view of 
our object in providing a biological approach to sex 
enlightenment. 

When we study earthworms, we observe their general 
build, their habits, their way of living in the ground, 



NATURE STUDY 111 

the way in which they adapt themselves to such a life. 
We may make simple experiments with them to find 
out whether they can hear, whether they can smell, 
which" kind of food they like best. We can set up simple 
wormeries to show the work they do in pulling leaves 
into the soil, in turning over the soil, in pulverising it 
and reducing it to a nutritious form for plant food. 
Out of doors we find earthworm burrows ; we see how 
ingeniously these lowly animals fill the mouths of their 
burrows with straw, with twigs, with feathers, and with 
soil. We also see how ingenious they are in selecting 
the soft, pointed parts of leaves to draw into the ground 
for their food. All of these are aspects of the structure 
and habit-life of the earthworm, which are quite easily 
studied first-hand. 

In the reproductive process, the earthworms are 
hermaphrodite and are cross-fertilised, or, as one might 
put it in speaking simply to a little child, " It is just 
the same as you saw in the tulip, only the racial organs 
are closed up inside the earthworm, for, you see, the 
earthworm is like a tube, while the flower is like a cup. 
The eggs and the sperms grow inside the earthworm, 
and, just as the tulip needed sperms from another tulip 
to join with its eggs to make them become tulip seeds, 
so the earthworm needs sperms from another earth- 
worm to join with its eggs. But here is a great differ- 
ence. The tulip grew fixed in the ground, so had to 
get the insects to help it, and to bring the sperms from 
one tulip to another. • The earthworm can crawl ; it 
is not fixed in the ground, and so it does not need to be 
dependent upon anything else to help it ; it can do this 
great work for itself ; so one earthworm crawls to another 
earthworm and gives it the sperms that it needs to 



112 NATURE STUDY 

join with its eggs. Then the little eggs are laid in a 
tiny brown cradle, and the sperms are dropped over 
them in this cradle ; the cradle is closed up, and buried 
in the ground, and in due time one sperm has joined 
with each egg, and within two or three weeks, the little 
egg grows into a tiny earthworm baby and wriggles out 
of its cradle, beginning to grow, and feed, and wriggle 
through the soil just as its parents did before it." 

The favourite time for egg-laying is during the spring 
and the summer ; particularly in April one can see, on 





The ' Ram's-Horn ' Snail (Planorbis corneus). 

A. Creature emerging partly from its shell — the colour of shell and 
body is dark brown, nearly black. B, The eggs laid in an 
oval mass, on water-weed, stones, etc. 

examining an earthworm, the enlarged creamy-coloured 
racial organs shining through the skin a short distance 
behind the head end and in front of the thickened part 
of the earthworm, known as the * saddle.' 

Water-snails reproduce in a manner similar to the 
earthworm, being hermaphrodite and cross-fertilised. 
One can often see, during the spring and summer, this 
process of ' giving ' taking place if one keeps water- 
snails in a simple aquarium consisting of a jam jar full 
of water and some water-weeds growing in it. 



NATURE STUDY 113 

The eggs are deposited on the sides of the jar or tank 
or on the water-weed in clumps, that of the Planorbis 
corneus, the ram's-horn snail, being in oval patches 
containing from six to twenty transparent, yellowish 
eggs, each of which is about one-tenth of an inch in 
diameter. The eggs of the Limncea stagnalis are laid 
in sausage-shaped clumps, and are clear and trans- 
parent, with no yellowish tinge. It is interesting to 





/ 



The Common Wateb-Snail (Limncea stagnalis). 

A, The creature emerging partly from its shell ; /, ' foot " ; t, tentacle. 
B, The c spawn ' (eggs) of this snail adhering to water-weed. 

observe a clump of these water-snail eggs day by day, 
and see the tiny speck within each gradually developing. 
Then comes the time when a little touch on the jelly 
will liberate these young snails. One can watch them 
so disperse and begin their free lives. 

Of the land-snails, the common garden snail 
{Helix aspersa) is very useful, being found on ivy and 
many plants in the garden during the summer-time, 
8 



114 NATURE STUDY 

or during autumn, winter, and early spring one must 
hunt under stones, in crevices, in the ground, under old 
flower-pots, and in similar sheltered places for the snails 
which are in their winter sleep of hibernation. The 
eggs of the land-snails are laid chiefly during June and 
July in little clumps of creamish white gelatinous-looking 
balls (sixty to seventy in a clump of Helix aspersa) 
somewhat resembling sago, and are to be found in the 
soil. Usually in about fifteen to twenty-one days, 
though in some cases longer, they hatch as miniature 
adults, the baby snails being almost colourless, with a 
thin, transparent shell. 

The story of reproduction in the snail is similar to 
that in the, earthworm. The snails are, however, pro- 
vided with a special organ for giving the sperms to 
another snail, and one can see the insertion of the tube 
or duct from one snail into the opening of the other snail, 
both snails effecting transference of the sperms simul- 
taneously. I have noticed this taking place in the large 
garden snails kept in a vivarium, in the early spring, 
just after their emergence from hibernation. 

There are many features of interest to study in snails 
besides the reproductive processes. One may indicate as 
suitable, the testing of the sensations, as was suggested 
when dealing with the earthworm ; the study of the 
shell ; of the method and rate of movement ; and some 
simple little experiments to estimate the carrying-power 
of the snail are always of interest. One finds that an 
ordinary active garden snail can carry on its back 
six other snails (the sixth one tumbled off). 

It is well in this early nature work to draw attention to 
the common needs of all animal life. We eat food ; so 
do snails, so do worms, birds, frogs — in fact, all animals. 



NATUKE STUDY 115 

We breathe; so do all animals, though probably not in the 
same way as we do. A young child, becoming aware of its 
own heart-beat, as it may sometimes after violent exertion, 
and inquiring about this, is very likely to ask, " Has pussy 
a heart ? " or " Has the snail a heart ? " If this nature 
work is wisely dealt with so as to bring out the idea of 
the general principles of function which are common to 
all animal life, then it will help in considering the question 
of the reproductive function as being one of the normal 
functions which are characteristic of all organic life. 

Slugs are similar to snails in their method of repro- 
duction, and their eggs, smaller than those of the snail, six 
to fifteen in a clump, are laid in the soil or under stones 
and moss, before they go into hibernation ; in the case 
of the Grey Field Slug, during August, September, and 
October ; in some varieties of slugs, e.g. the Common 
Black Slug, hatching occurs after an interval of sixty 
days or longer, though in the Grey Field Slug hatching 
may take place within three weeks if the weather is warm. 
Apparently the eggs may lie dormant over the winter, 
for I have found them on 31st March. They hatched 
on 6th April. The eggs of the yellow slug are small, 
yellowish, semi-opaque balls about one-eighth of an inch 
in diameter. The young of the Common Black Slug bury 
themselves in the ground for four or five days after hatch- 
ing, and then emerge nearly double their original size. 

Spiders are interesting animals to study. Particularly 
during late September and October, the common Cross 
Spider (Epeira diademata) is to be found in gardens 
and on the hedges weaving its web and waiting in the 
centre thereof for the unwary fly, or perhaps hiding under 
the leaves near by, ready to dart out on the first vibra- 
tion of the web caused by the fly alighting thereon. 



116 NATURE STUDY 

One may watch the way in which this web is built ; 
one can study the habits of this interesting little creature ; 
the way in which its body is constructed, how the head 
and chest are joined into one, and the large abdomen is 
attached to the chest by a tiny * waist ' ; the four pairs 
of jointed legs attached to the chest are seen to have 
each their own duties ; apparently the hind legs are 
little used in walking, but when the creature is suspend- 
ing itself on its silk or is constructing its web, it guides 
the silk by its hind legs, and when it is running up its 
silk, it collects it as it goes, by its front legs. The action 
of the jaws may be watched, the covering of the body 
observed. Then, too, it is interesting to find out 
what power of hearing the spiders may have ; whether 
they are sensitive to smell ; whether they can appreciate 
the difference between light and darkness. It is possible 
to devise and carry out simple experiments by which one 
can show, in various ways, whether the spider is capable 
of responding to stimulus. During October, hunting 
under leaves on the ground or in sheltered spots, one is 
often able to find the males of Epeira diademata. The 
female, recognised by the large, heavy abdomen, weaves 
the web ; the male weaves but little, if at all. The male is 
much smaller than the female ; in proportion, the abdomen 
is narrow and reduced in size ; each feeler has a ' knob ' 
at the end (really an organ for transmitting the sperms 
to the female), and so it is easy to distinguish males and 
females. Life in spiderdom seems fraught with much 
trouble and anxiety, at any rate for the small male. 
Frequently the males ' display ■ before the female, 
performing curious antics, balancing on their legs in a 
curious fashion, contorting themselves, and generally 
manifesting an active expression of racial energy which 



NATURE STUDY 117 

is frequently designated * the courtship dance.' The 
female makes a selection, but even then, all may not be 
destined to go smoothly, for her ferocious temperament 
often leads her to attack and kill her would-be mate. 

Some stages in the life-history can be obtained quite 
easily if a male and female are put together in a large 
glass-covered box, 1 and, within a few days, it will 
usually be found that the eggs have been l&id by the 
female and deposited in a silken cocoon fastened up in a 
corner or under a ledge in the box. So does the mother 
spider care for her young. This silken cocoon, yellowish 
in colour, may contain as many as two hundred eggs of 
a pale orange-yellow colour. One has to wait patiently 
for the hatching of these, for the eggs of Epeira diademata 
usually remain dormant over the winter, hatching the 
following spring. Eggs laid on 25th October hatched the 
following May. One day it was seen that numbers of tiny 
spiders were wriggling out of the cocoon in the box, leaving 
their empty white egg-shells behind them. For some 
days they remained congregated around the cocoon, 
and then gradually, producing silken threads, they dis- 
persed from the cocoon and spread themselves out in 
the box. 

The skin of the young spider is unelastic, hence 
it is necessary to moult its skin, developing a new body 
cover, thus making accommodation for increased body 
growth. Its first meal is usually its first moulted skin ; 
after that it is wise to put the box open, out of doors in 
the sunlight, when the young spiders will be dispersed, 
being borne away on their silken threads by the wind. 

Soon after the eggs are laid, perhaps a day or two days 
after, the female dies ; the male sometimes lives longer. 
1 See Appendix. 



118 



NATURE STUDY 



The House Spiders and the Water Spiders are 
also very interesting in their habits and life-history. 







The Common Garden Spider (Epeira diademata). 

A, Female. B, Male. These spiders vary very much in size 
when they are mature. The female ma} T be \ inch lon^ in 
the body and the male £ inch long in the body. The 
varieties differ in colour, being various shades of brown 
and reddish -fawn, with lighter marking. C, Cocoon of pale 
yellow silk, containing a clump of pale orange-coloured eggs. 
This cocoon is often found fixed up in sheltered corners. 

Their breeding season falls during the summer 
months. 1 

1 See Appendix. 



NATURE STUDY 119 

The life-history of the house-fly or the blow-fly, the 
earwig, the cockroach may easily be observed. 1 Though 
from some points of view these insects may not be 
considered attractive, nevertheless they are of extreme 
interest, and, in point of view of an object in providing 
a biologic approach, may be the only ones easily obtain- 
able, or may be the ones, because they are so common, 
on which a child's curiosity may fix itself. 

The Cabbage Butterfly is usually quite easy to procure 
and to rear. The eggs are laid in little clumps on the 
under surface of cabbage leaves, and hatch, producing 
very tiny caterpillars. These feed voraciously, moulting 
periodically. Their cast skins are often found on the 
cabbage leaves. These caterpillars, too, may be found 
on nasturtiums. They live for several weeks, feeding, 
growing, moulting, feeding again, and so on ; during 
their caterpillar life moulting, perhaps, five times. 

Before moulting, the caterpillar usually retires to 
rather a sheltered part of the leaf, or if being kept 
in a vivarium 2 it fixes itself on the side or prefer- 
ably the top of the box, resting for a period of about 
twenty to thirty hours before the actual moult takes 
place. When it is fully grown, and preparing for its 
fifth moult, it fixes itself by means of a silken cord on 
to some foundation, if out of doors, in some sheltered 
spot, perhaps under the corner of the railings, in a crevice 
of a stone wall. Then it draws itself up, becomes shorter 
and thicker, somewhat paler in colour, casts its skin, 
exudes a gummy material from the surface of the body, 
which gradually hardens into an angular case, one end 
of which is segmented in a way similar to the cater- 
pillar's body segmentation, the other end having 
1 See Appendix. 2 See Appendix. 



120 



NATUKE STUDY 



marks and folds somewhat resembling the outline of 
wings. In this condition it is known as a ' pupa p or 




(All natural size.) 

The Cabbage Butterfly. 

A, Male. B, Female. C, Caterpillar on leaf. D, Pupa showing 
mode of attachment by silken cord. E, Pupa (side view). 

' chrysalis.' It is interesting to observe that the coloura- 
tion of the pupa tends, in some measure, to resemble 
the colouration of the foundation upon which it is fixed. 
These caterpillars and those of the lesser cabbage 
butterfly may be reared in glass-topped boxes lined 



NATURE STUDY 121 

with different colours ; for example, one lined with red, 
one with brown, one with green, and so on ; and as they 
go into pupation, one obtains decided differences in the 
colour of the chrysalis, each set tending towards the 
shade of the box lining. This is one way in which the 
caterpillar meets the struggle for existence. 

Thecabbage butterfly passes through two generations in 
a year. The caterpillars which go into pupation at the end 
of July (they usually pupate on the cabbages then) hatch 
at the end of a fortnight or three weeks, if the weather be 
ordinarily warm, as mature butterflies, the female being 
marked with three black dots and black patches over the 
corners of its cream-coloured wings, the male being much 
less conspicuous in his marking, and slightly less in size. 

One may see during the summer days the male 
busily chasing the female, and perhaps alighting on her in 
the process of fertilisation. Then the fertilised eggs are 
deposited on the under side of the cabbage leaves, and in 
due time hatch, another brood of caterpillars being pro- 
duced. These go into pupation about September or early 
October, finding their way to a sheltered spot, and remain 
in this state till the following spring, when they hatch. 

The Currant Moth lends itself easily to this observa- 
tional work, so also do silkworms. 1 Many other insects 
are interesting to study : Stick Insects are particularly 
simple to rear ; the eggs may be bought and kept till 
they hatch, 2 the young creatures fed and reared till the 
eggs are obtained, the life-cycle so complete. 

In the garden one may "watch the Ladybirds, those 

dainty members of the beetle family. Perhaps they may 

be seen in pairs on the leaves, where the creamy-white 

eggs are laid, and hatch in ten to fifteen days, produc- 

1 See Appendix. • See Appendix. 



122 NATURE STUDY 

ing little smoky-black larvae, which are known to the 
gardener as ' niggers.' These in time pupate on the 
under side of a leaf, fixing themselves by the tail : in 
about two weeks' time they emerge as adult ladybirds. 

The Skipjack beetles, narrow, light-brown-backed 
beetles, are often to be seen during the summer months 
in pairs on the leaves of the turnip, cabbage, and, in 
fact, nearly all plants in the garden ; the eggs are laid 
in the soil, and hatch into those curious larvae known 
as ' wire- worms,' which live in the soil and feed, much 
to the gardener's annoyance, on the roots of plants. 
Mustard and flax are said, however, to be exempt from 
their attentions. 1 

We may now pass to the vertebrate animals. Children 
are very fond of keeping goldfish. These, though 
certainly very interesting from the point of view of 
studying the fish as an animal, are not particularly 
valuable as providing much illustration in our pursuit of 
the biological approach, for they are difficult to rear in an 
ordinary small aquarium, and it is somewhat difficult to 
identify male and female. The female is of stouter build 
than the male, and the male shows a depression near 
the anal fin, that is, the last single fin on the under side of 
the body, just beside the opening of the digestive tract. 

However, the story of the way in which the gold- 
fishes reproduce may be told. The male chases the 
female of his choice, and together they wander among 
the water-weed ; she lays her eggs on the water-weed, 
and the male swims over them, depositing ' milt,' i.e. 
the spermatic fluid ; the eggs are thus fertilised, and 
hatch in three to six days as tiny fish. 

Sticklebacks are very common pets of the aquarium ; 
1 Theobald. 



NATURE STUDY 123 

they are easily obtained from ponds and lakes, and also 
from streams. They are small, graceful fish, with three 
spines along the back just behind the head. These 
spines can be seen moving up and down while the fish 
is swimming, but while it is poised in the water they 
are not so easy to make out, being bent backwards flat 
against the back. As the breeding season approaches — 
in March or April — the male becomes excited, changes 
colour, the throat and breast becoming a brilliant red. 
(The female does not show these changes of colour.) 
He becomes very active, swimming up and down in 
front of the female, coaxing her towards a spot where 
he intends to set up their home. He binds together 
water-weed in a quiet, sheltered spot, weaving it into a 
delicate nest, and when this work, which occupies two 
or three days, is done, he coaxes and pushes the female 
into this abode. There she lays the eggs, then he 
passes in and ejects milt over them. They are fertilised, 
and the female leaves them, the duty of caring for the 
eggs during their period of development devolving 
upon the male. He keeps in front of one opening of the 
nest, and by waving his fin and tail energetically, causes 
a current of water to flow into and through the nest, and 
in this way the eggs are supplied with oxygen, which they 
need for aeration. The young appear after about two 
weeks. The male still looks after them for a while, but 
when they are strong enough to leave the nest, he flicks 
the nest with his tail, breaks it up, and the little ones 
are launched out into the world to look after themselves. 
Sticklebacks, because they are so energetic, so interest- 
ing in their habits, and so easily tamed, are, to children, 
very interesting little fishes to keep in an aquarium, 
while to adults, the features of their life-history, 



124 NATURE STUDY 

their habit of nest-building, have a special illumination 
because of the clear evidence they give of the value of 
psychical fatherhood, even among such lowly animals as 
these. 1 

Minnows, too, are nice aquarium pets, but they have 
not the interesting habits which are so delightful in 
the stickleback. One can almost, perhaps half whimsi- 
cally, perceive a contrast in their build and associate 
it with the contrast in disposition — the minnow's 
rounded head outline, unaccentuated mouth, being in 
accordance with its placid way of life ; while the little, 
energetic, responsive stickleback shows definite angu- 
larity and forceful outline of head, mouth, and fin, and 
its whole body seem3 suggestive of activity. The 
home of the minnow is in the pond or stream, and when 
the breeding season approaches (i.e. in May) they make 
their way to a sheltered part in the depths of the water ; 
there the female selects a suitable place and lays her 
eggs in a little groove, the male swimming over them 
and fertilising them with the sperms he ejects over them. 

The story of the salmon is familiar to most of us. 
The tremendous impulse which drives these and all 
creatures to fulfil their obligation to carry on the species, 
to perpetuate the race, is spoken of as * the racial im- 
pulse/ or * racial instinct.' Its manifestation we can 
appreciate in the coaxing ways of the male stickleback, 
in the brilliance of colouration (which may be regarded 
as an expression of the vigorous productivity of the 
organism at the time when it is in condition of repro- 
ductive activity) which makes itself shown at this period; 
and in the salmon this racial impulse drives the two sexes, 
when mature, many hundreds of miles from the sea, up 
1 See Appendix. 



NATURE STUDY 125 

rivers till, in their journey, they find a quiet shallow 
where this important work may be safely carried on. So 
imperative, so forceful, is this racial instinct in the 
salmon that, male and female, together they go hundreds 
of miles, never stopping for rest nor for food ; no 
obstacle can hold them back. They leap up falls 
with determined repetition, till they succeed. Then the 
female, making a groove in the quiet, sandy bottom of 
the stream, deposits some eggs in it, and then over them 
swims the male, depositing sperms. Again the female 
deposits eggs, the male then fertilising them, and so on 
till all the eggs have been discharged from the ovaries 
in the female's body ; which may take two weeks to be 
achieved, for a salmon of an average size may lay as many 
as six thousand eggs. This takes place in winter-time. 

When the salmon have finished this work of producing 
eggs and milt, they are very different fish from what 
they were in their riotous journey up the river : they are 
enfeebled, exhausted, weak, and often drift helplessly, tail 
foremost, down the river, few of the old ones reaching the 
sea alive, so great is the sacrificial toll imposed by the 
race — a law of sacrifice — demanding little or much, 
sometimes all — which the lower animals follow blindly, 
instinctively, unknowingly ; but which Man on his 
higher plane of evolution, with his knowledge, his 
reasoning, his wider sphere of life-relationships and 
obligations, his power of choice, may accept and fulfil, 
may evade, or may be forced by circumstance to forego. 
The altruism of human maternity is the highest ex- 
pression of this universal law. 

Of course, very few of the six thousand eggs ever grow 
into a full-sized salmon ; many are lost, numbers of them 
are eaten by other fish, for many fish like dainties for 



126 NATURE STUDY 

their food. But those which do survive hatch in about 
four months' time, and when about a year old leave the 
breeding-place in the stream, and, as little fishes about 
1| inches long, they begin their journey down the river 
to the sea. Here they live, apparently feeding vora- 
ciously, ^ growing strong and large until the time 
comes when they, as their parents did before them, 
feel this tremendous, driving impulse, the racial instinct, 
which obliges them to do as their parents did, and take 
the long river journey. 

The salmon lays many thousands of eggs, the stickle- 
back but few — twelve to twenty. The salmon, however, 
exercises practically no care over theeggs, while the stickle- 
back looks after its young till they are safely hatched. So 
that we realise in the case of the salmon, were only few 
eggs laid, the species would probably soon die out, because 
of the many risks attendant on development, but in the 
stickleback, where a certain amount of parental care is 
taken, the safety of the species is assured, so there is not 
the racial need for so many eggs being produced. This is 
a biologic code — the greater the number of offspring, 
the less the parental care, or vice versa, the less the 
number of offspring, the greater the parental care. 
One sees it exemplified among the most lowly organised 
members of the kingdom of living things. Even in the 
plant world its workings may be traced. The poppy 
flower ripens into a fruit, shaking in the wind, indis- 
criminately flinging away its thousand small seeds to 
be, by chance, buried in the ground and nurtured. 
The coconut flower, to take an extreme contrast, forms a 
fruit containing one seed, fully and lavishly equipped 
with nutriment (the white ' flesh ' and ' milk ') upon 
which the embryo may feed, well-encased in a woody 



NATURE STUDY 127 

wall, this enwrapped in a fibrous, boat-shaped, water- 
proof, buoyant covering, the whole ensuring a safe 
journey to a new growing-ground by water transit. 
And as we climb the scale of life, we are constantly 
brought to realise the general fact that the number of 
offspring and parental care of them are in inverse ratio. 

We see this exemplified in the frogs, the toads, and the 
newts, the next family of vertebrates which are easy 
to study, and which represent one degree higher in the 
scale of life. All of these amphibious creatures pass the 
winter in a condition of hibernation, burying them- 
selves in the mud at the bottom of a pond or under 
turf or stones. Frogs will hibernate in this way, some- 
what gregariously ; seven or eight of them are sometimes 
to be found in one group in the mud. 

When the opportunity of getting their normal food 
ceases, that is, at the end of the summer when the in- 
sects are few, these creatures retire to the bottom of the 
pond, and there, in the mud, they spend the whole winter 
in a condition of lowered vitality and of dormancy, 
which is not sleep and not death. In the spring, to- 
wards the end of February, they come out from the mud, 
and come up to the surface of the pond, the males 
croaking lustily, particularly in the evenings. This 
croak is the courtship song of the male. He is consider- 
ably smaller than the female in size, has curious little 
pads on his hands, and his forearm is thickened. 

During mating, the male is on the back of the female, 
and as the eggs pass from the ovaries within her body, 
the sperm from his body passes over them, and they are 
fertilised. 

Here, again, we have an example of fertilisation taking 
place outside the body, but it must take place immedi- 



128 NATUKE STUDY 

ately the eggs are extruded, hence the reason for the 
smallness of the male in proportion to the female, 
enabling him to perform this act successfully. 

One frog may produce one thousand eggs. When they 
are first extruded from the body, they are quite small 
black globes, each surrounded with a transparent jelly, 
but after they have been in the water for a time, this jelly 
begins to swell, separating the eggs from one another, 
yet securing them in one light, buoyant mass. Parental 
care in the frogs goes no further than this, after the eggs 
are deposited near the water-weed. But the physio- 
logical care that is shown is evident, when one realises 
just how valuable is the black colour of the egg, and the 
surrounding globe of jelly. 

In March, when these eggs are laid (usually the second 
week), the weather is cold, and the rays of the sun are 
not very powerful ; the jelly, clear and buoyant, supports 
the eggs on the surface of the water, where they may 
obtain the maximum effect of the sun's rays, and each 
globe of jelly being transparent, acts somewhat as a 
lens, focussing the sun's rays on the little black egg 
within. The very blackness is also an aid, for black is 
a colour which absorbs heat, so we see how the small 
amount of heat available at the time of the year is 
concentrated on the eggs, so that they may be kept 
warm and development may take place. Nor is this 
the only advantage in the jelly. Its slipperiness renders 
the frog-spawn difficult to catch, and the enterprising 
duck or swan, who would have a meal of frogs' eggs, 
finds it a meal difficult to secure. 

The life-history of the frog may well be studied, 
beginning with the frog-spawn. Eggs which have 
clear, transparent jelly are healthy, and likely to develop 



NATURE STUDY 129 

well, but often we may find frog-spawn in which the jelly- 
has gone milky-looking. These eggs will not develop. 1 

About ten days after the spawn is laid, a little black 
tadpole wriggles its way out of the jelly. During these ten 
days the egg has changed from the round, black fertilised 
egg to an oval creature which, gradually developing a 
head end, and becoming comma-shaped, begins to 
wriggle and make its way out of the jelly, finding its 
way to the weed. It now enters upon a fish-like exist- 
ence, which lasts about three months. On the water- 
weed it remains, attached by a sucker. From the sides 
of its body, just behind the head, three tiny branched 
filaments appear. These are the external breathing 
organs or gills. Soon, within a few days, these disappear 
and are replaced by internal gills. 

The tadpole lives on vegetarian diet till it is about 
two months old, then it begins to have carnivorous 
inclinations. When it is about two months old, the 
hind legs begin to show, and later the fore-legs, and it 
comes up to the surface of the water very frequently, 
to breathe. About this time it ceases to feed, but we 
notice that its tail is gradually shrinking ; it is being 
utilised through the blood stream, as a means of food, 
and gradually dwindles in size till we have our little 
tadpole converted into a miniature frog, and entering 
upon its adult life. 

The life-history of the toad is very similar. The 
eggs, however, are not laid in masses, but in ropes 
and festoons across the water-weed. In the newts, 
we have some signs of parental care, and fewer eggs 
laid, for as each egg is laid the female newt places it 
carefully under a leaf, folds the leaf around it, and in 
1 See Appendix for rearing of frogs. 

9 



130 NATURE STUDY 

this way the early stages of development are protected. 
Both newts and toads go through the tadpole stage of 
development, the newt tadpole keeping its external gills 
throughout its tadpole life ; they are finally absorbed 
and disappear towards or during the winter months. 

In the breeding season, the male newt develops a 
frill along his back, otherwise the males can be dis- 
tinguished from the females by the more conspicuous 
colouration of the abdomen, the spots and blotches of 
orange and brown being larger and more elaborate in 
the male than in the female. 

Sometimes, when one is wandering over dry moorland 
or dry, rocky places, one may find lizards. The grey 
Viviparous Lizard is easy to keep and rear in a simple 
vivarium * : the sexes are somewhat difficult to identify. 
The blue markings down the side of the male are, 
however, more conspicuous than in the female. Most 
lizards lay eggs, but the Viviparous Lizard retains the 
fertilised eggs within the body until they have reached 
a certain stage in development, and when the young 
are born they resemble miniature adults. They are born 
usually in July, and as many as eight may be born at 
once ; small creatures about an inch long, very like their 
parents ; they feed on green flies and other small insects. 

We may now pass on to the birds. These are par- 
ticularly interesting, because they show us such refined 
evidence of parental care : the construction of the 
nest, the incubation of the eggs, the feeding and train- 
ing of the young, are all of intense interest. 

Birds lay much fewer eggs than do either the fish or the 
frog, most of them laying not more than five or six at 

1 Pets and How to Keep Them, by F. Finn, published by Hutchin- 
son & Co., is a very useful book. 



NATURE STUDY 131 

a time, while some of them lay fewer than that. Con- 
sequently we find that, in order that the success of the 
race may be ensured, the birds exercise instinctively 
great parental care. When the breeding season is ap- 
proaching, both in their ways and in their appearance 
the birds make the fact known, for the racial instinct 
is very strong, very imperative, and very expressive in 
this family. The sweet song in spring-time, the extreme 
activity, the graceful, active movements, particularly of 
the male birds, the brilliance of plumage, at this time, 
are all indications that they are ready to perform the 
work of reproduction. 

When the racial organs are mature, that is, at the 
beginning of the breeding season, the physiological con- 
dition of the body is naturally rich, and this surplusage 
of nutritive and energetic condition shows itself in 
various manifestations which we are wont to recognise 
in the courtship season of the birds. 

The plumage, which may have been comparatively 
dull, becomes bright and conspicuous, particularly in the 
males : adornments develop, the song gains in strength, 
variability, and harmony. The peacock, with his hundred 
eyes in his gorgeous tail, and the plain peahen, are familiar 
to us all. The female sparrow is dull and dingy com- 
pared with her black-throated mate. Children like to 
say, " The gentleman sparrow wears a brown coat, a 
grey waistcoat, and a black tie, while the lady sparrow 
is in dingy grey and brown." The male blackbird is 
distinguishable by his black plumage and orange beak, 
while his mate, similar in shape though somewhat more 
slender and less robust, is dark brown in plumage, not 
even rejoicing in an orange beak. The handsome male 
bullfinch, with his bright pink breast, grey back, white 



132 NATUKE STUDY 

stripes in his black wings, far overshadows in his beauty 
his more quietly-garbed mate, whose breast is a soft 
greyish pink only ; and so on, pretty well, throughout 
bird life. It is interesting to note, however, that in 
the birds of prey the female carries off the palm for size 
and vigour. 

In some birds, it is more difficult to distinguish the 
sexes by their appearance, particularly in those which 
sing sweetly. The male and female Robin are very much 
alike, so also the male and female Thrush. The Chaffinch, 
Starling, Yellow Hammer, Swallow, all, however, follow 
the general rule, and we are all familiar with the common 
domestic fowl as an example of sex differentiation. 

Among birds the courtship life is very elaborate. 
Many of them show quaint ways of wooing, 
and frequently the males are distinctly combative. 
We are told the story of the Penguin's quaint courtship, 
how the male bird carries stones in his beak and deposits 
them at the feet of the one he would woo, making a 
little heap of them in front of her. Should she approve, 
she allows him to go on building his heap of stones, but 
should she not be inclined to accept his attentions, she 
turns away, indifferent, and leaves him to build another 
heap of stones for another bride-to-be. 

One could dwell long upon the fascinating subject of bird 
life, but it is much more fascinating to watch and observe 
the ways of our feathered friends than to read of them. 

Children should be encouraged to feed the birds, and 
in this way to attract them near enough for them to have 
a chance of watching them and studying them. 1 

Courtship time ended, the work of nest-building 
begins. This is frequently shared by male and female, 
1 See Appendix, 'Feeding of Birds.' 



NATUKE STUDY 133 

although very often the male does the greater part of 
the work. The Chaffinch builds its nest of moss, lichen, 
dried grass, lined with down, feathers, and hair, in a 
bush ; the Sparrow makes a most untidy nest in a hole or 
crevice under the eaves of a house or barn. The Black- 
bird weaves twigs, roots, and dried grasses, planting 
them in a hedge, or on the branches of a fir tree, though 
occasionally making a mistake and constructing the nest 
in the ground, and when this happens the eggs usually 
do not develop. 

A Thrush's nest very much resembles that of the 
Blackbird, but is lined with mud. That fascinating 
little friend of man, the Robin, has a great predilection 
for articles of domestic association ; we may find his 
nest in an old shoe, an old kettle, a rusty pan, in the 
corner of a barn, on a shelf, and not infrequently he 
invades our house and makes his home there. 

" A Street Troubadour " (in Lives of the Hunted, by 
Ernest Thompson Seton) is a charming little story of 
sparrow life, and one to which children listen with 
charmed intentness and ready sympathy. Some little 
girls at school once decided " to do an experiment. " It 
was spring-time. In a corner of a dingle they put out 
open boxes of wool and fluff : they tied, loosely, wools of 
different shades (mostly brown, grey, black, and yellow) 
to the railings and to the bush twigs. To their great de- 
light these wools disappeared as the days went on. They 
played at being ' Mr. Kearton,' and stealthily watched 
the birds come and help themselves to the treasure- 
trove of wool. But the yellow wool was always left ! 

Birds usually show great discrimination and some- 
times great daring in their choice of building places, 
securing their nest from observation, either by success- 



134 NATURE STUDY 

fully hiding it from view, or in some cases by choosing 
a site which is likely to be very safe from invasion, and 
when they choose a site like this, they usually build 
but little. Nowhere is this seen to better advantage 
than among the gulls. The Kitti wakes choose a narrow 
ledge high up the rock-side, and there, in a colony, make 
a rough nest of seaweed ; the Herring Gull and the 
Great Black-backed Gull have the same gregarious 
habit and a similar taste in nest-building. Some 
species of gulls migrate more or less inland for breeding ; 
they sometimes resort to a patch of marshy ground 
(Great Black-backed Gull). The eggs of gulls which 
choose a high narrow ridge of rock for nesting-site 
are peculiarly adapted for safety in such a precarious 
position : they are very much pointed at one end, broad 
at the other, so that, if pushed, they do not roll off the 
ledge, but simply wheel round on their narrow end into 
safety. The Ringed Plover and the Common Tern 
choose a little hollow on a pebbly or sandy shore, and 
there lay their eggs, which, however, are safeguarded by 
being speckled and in general appearance closely re- 
sembling the pebbles around them. 

When the nest is ready, and the eggs within the ovary 
of the female are ready also to be fertilised, 1 sperms are 
ejaculated from the opening in the male's body 2 into 
the opening of the female's body, and each egg is fer- 
tilised by a sperm which finds its way up the duct to 
meet the egg. After fertilisation has occurred, the egg 
passes down the duct, on its way is encased in shell, 

1 In most birds there is only one ovary, the left ; the one on the 
right side dwindles away early in life. 

2 The ducks, geese, and Ratitae (ostriches, emus, kiwis) possess a 
special organ for transference of spermatic fluid. 



NATURE STUDY 135 

and then is deposited in the nest. Within each egg is a 
little ' germ disc ' which is the living part of the egg. It 
will grow and become a chick. Surrounding this germ 
disc, the chick-to-be has a food-supply, the yolk, and 
round that again, more food — the * white ' of the egg. 
At one end is a little air space, so that the growing chick 
can have the air it needs, and the yolk is wonderfully 
balanced on twisted cords so that, as the mother turns 
the egg over daily, to prevent the embryo from sticking 
to the shell, the germ disc always comes up to the upper 
side of the egg, that is, it remains close to the mother's 
body, and is so kept warm. 

Many days have to pass before the germ disc becomes 
a fully developed chick (in the case of the domestic 
fowl, about twenty-one days, the pigeon, fourteen days), 
and it can only develop if it is kept warm and is fed 
and supplied with air. We have seen where the food 
and the air are in the egg, and the warmth is supplied 
by the mother, and sometimes the father bird, sitting in 
the nest over the eggs, fluffing out their wings over them 
and so keeping them at an even temperature. 1 

1 The study of eggs during incubation is very instructive. Twenty 
to thirty eggs may be placed in the incubator, and one broken open 
and examined each day. On the second day the rudimentary back- 
bone may be seen clearly, and on the third day the heart may be 
seen pulsating. But I doubt whether such study, valuable as it may 
be from the scientific point of view, is altogether advisable for young 
children and early adolescents. The breaking open of the egg leads, 
within a short time, to the death of the embryo, and while an imme- 
diate examination of the embryo impresses the fact that the creature 
is a living creature even at this early stage, the ultimate result of such 
examination is to kill. And herein lies the danger that the sensitive- 
ness in regard to all living creatures may be warped. The fact that 
one wishes to impress, is that from the moment of conception the 
creature is alive, and for that reason it seems that one should forego 



136 



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This period, known as the ' incubation ' period, is a 
tiring one for the mother bird, exhausted as she already 
is with the physiological effort of producing the eggs, 
but the father bird is very 
good to her, keeping her 
supplied with food, sitting 
near the nest singing to her, 
and sometimes relieving 
her while she goes and seeks 
some food for herself. 
Then the day comes when 
the chicks are fully formed 
and ready to come out from 
their shells. By this time 
they have a strong beak, 
and from the beak projects 
a sharp point, the egg- 
tooth. With this, they 

poke their way through the skin of the egg, fill 
their lungs with air from the air-chamber, and so take 

detailed observation of embryological development so far as th« 
education of the young is concerned. 

The development of the water-snail may be watched through a 
hand lens— or better, through the microscope : so may the develop- 
ment of the land-snail and the slug. These each show the embryo 
moving and pulsating within the egg, and it may be observed until 
emergence from the egg takes place. A study of models showing 
the developmental stages may be helpful. Probably it will be 
necessary to explain that these models have been prepared by 
scientists who have been able to find out all about the growth of 
these creatures. In many museums such models are to be found. 
The Natural History Museum, South Kensington, has models of the 
developing egg of* the fowl, a series of embryos and young of various 
fishes, amphibians, and some others (Bay VI., Central Hall), de- 
velopment of a mollusc (Crepidula) (at present in the North Hall) 
and of a star-fish in the ' Echinoderm ' Gallery. 



Newly-fledged Chick — 
21 st Day. 



138 NATURE STUDY 

their first good breath, break open the shell with their 
sharp egg-tooth, and so make their way out — little, 
damp, bedraggled creatures. 

The chick of the domestic fowl has soft down on it 
by the time it is hatched. This soon, in a few minutes 
sometimes, gets dry and the chick starts on its way 
in the world, a very independent youngster. But the 
majority of song-birds are hatched without any feathers; 
they are very helpless and need considerable parental 
solicitation for some days, perhaps a fortnight, after 
they are hatched. Their parents feed them ; these baby 
birds are wonderfully hungry little creatures, keeping 
their parents busy all day, but, bit by bit, they grow 
larger and stronger, their beaks look less abnormally 
large, they begin to develop feathers, and soon grow 
too big for the nest ; and then they are turned or carried 
out of the nest and taught to fly, and to fend for them- 
selves. Some birds extend their parental care even after 
the nestlings have left the home of their babyhood. I 
remember watching a row of young swallows sitting on 
a railing, their mouths gaping open for food. Soon 
they shrieked in chorus. Up in the air far above 
came several mother swallows, each with an insect in 
her beak, and without the slightest hesitation in her 
course, she darted down from the height and popped 
the insect into her baby's open mouth ! Birds must 
have wonderful precision of sight ! x 

It is in the Mammals that we get the highest type 

1 Visits to a bird gallery (Natural History Museum, South Kensing- 
ton ; Booth Museum, Brighton, etc. ), where the specimens are arranged 
in cases representing, in model, the natural haunt and nesting-site of 
the type, showing male, female, and nestlings, are often helpful in 
lieu of opportunity of making first-hand acquaintance with many of 
our feathered friends. 



NATURE STUDY 139 

of maternal care, for not only are the young retained 
within the body of the mother for their early days of 
growth, thus ensuring greater safety and constant 
temperature of environment, but after birth she makes 
provision for nourishment. 

Many of the mammals which have become domesti- 
cated to man's use have, through their domestication, 
become altered somewhat in their ways from what is 
inherently characteristic of the wild type. In the wild 
condition the creature had much to do ; the satisfaction 
of hunger was no easy task and involved arduous 
search, long journeys, frequent warfare, and then, 
perhaps, resulted in the minimum to satisfy his needs. 
Under domestication, these creatures are relieved of 
the necessity of finding food, for they get it in plenty, 
without effort. They have no need to protect themselves 
by speed or battle from their enemies, and thus under 
this long dominion of man their natural instinct has in 
many ways become altered. Particularly is this so in 
connection with the racial functions, for the relief from 
other obligations of life tends to release more energy 
towards these functions. Consequently we find that 
the definite breeding-season, which is typical of the 
wild animal, has become lost to a great extent among 
those that are domesticated, and in many cases repro- 
duction may take place at various times during the year. 

We are already grasping the idea that the success 
and perpetuation of the species may be ensured in two 
ways, either by a large number of offspring and great 
risks attendant upon their development, or a fewer 
number of offspring, and greater parental solicitation 
to lessen the risks of non-survival. 

This principle is seen fully worked out in the case 



140 NATUBE STUDY 

of the mammals. Moreover, if few offspring are to be 
produced, fertilisation must be very sure, and here, 
again, in mammals we see a special adaptation, for in 
order that fertilisation may be accomplished with as 
little risk as possible, the ova are fertilised within the 
maternal body ; and again, for safety of accomplish- 
ment, a special organ is developed in the male by means 
of which the sperms may be transmitted successfully. 
This is the spermatic duct leading from the testicles 
and enclosed within a strong muscular sheath, which 
again, with nature's wonderful economy, is made to 
enclose a second duct, the urethra, from the kidneys, and 
in all but the lowest mammals the two ducts fuse, one 
serving the purpose of both. When fertilisation is to 
take place, this organ, by automatic nervous stimulation, 
effects introduction of the spermatozoa. As the eggs 
leave the ovaries, one or more, as the case may be, may 
be fertilised, fix themselves on the wall of an enlarged 
portion of the oviduct, known as the uterus, and there 
remain during their period of prenatal life. The fer- 
tilised egg becomes surrounded in a double membrane ; 
from the wall of the uterus to which it is fixed by the 
placenta, it receives nourishment from the maternal 
blood stream, in this way growing for a period, which 
varies in length with different mammals. This period 
of growth within the uterus or womb is known as * gesta- 
tion.' In the elephant it is 600 days, in the rabbit 30, 
in the sheep 150, in the dog 60, and in man about 280 
days. 1 

When the developed egg, known in its earlier stages 
of growth as the ' embryo ' and in its later stage as the 
1 foetus,' is ready to be born, the walls of the uterus 
1 Thomson and Geddes, Evolution oj Sex. 



NATUKE STUDY HI 

contract and the foetus is liberated therefrom, passing 
down the vagina (i.e. the canal leading from the uterus 
to the external surface of the body), and then begins 
its period of postnatal care. For the young thing just 
born is too helpless to look after itself ; in some types 
it is born blind, weak, often without any hair, and 
the maternal care which has been exercised during its 
prenatal life is continued in another way. The stream 
of nutriment is now no longer needed to be directed 
towards the uterus for the nourishment of the embryo 
and the foetus, but is directed towards the mammary 
glands, which, during the period that it is required, have 
the power of extracting from the blood the necessary 
constituents of milk. 

Some of the mammals are very helpless at birth, 
others are particularly vigorous. Rats are blind nearly 
three weeks, though they are able to wash themselves 
at about the end of a week or ten days. They have no 
fur when they are born, and are altogether weak, help- 
less little things, whereas the guinea-pigs are much 
more sturdy. In two days they can generally begin 
to feed themselves, but there is an interesting com- 
parison to bring out : the rat's long period of infancy 
is associated with its higher intelligence ; the guinea- 
pigs are proverbially stupid. 

This care of the young during their early stages of 
growth may well be realised as a partial expression of 
the racial instinct which, before conception (that is, 
fertilisation), has manifested itself in other ways, perhaps 
vocal, as in the cats and dogs, perhaps physical, as seen 
in the antlers of the stag, of the red-deer, and of both 
male and female reindeer, which are cast as soon as the 
breeding-season is over, and do not develop until the 



142 NATURE STUDY 

approach of the next mating-time : then they grow 
very rapidly to full size. 

Of course, it will not be necessary to go into such 
detail as has been given here, in instructing children. 
At the same time, those who have the privilege of 
opening the young mind to the wonders of life should 
thoroughly understand their subject themselves, and 
should be prepared to give definite information should 
the child seek it. With little children, reproduction 
in the mammals may be taken in a simple way, as was 
suggested in the early part of this chapter, as a means 
of explaining motherhood, but with older children they 
both will desire and ought to know more. 

It is well that children should keep pets — tame rats, 
rabbits, mice, guinea-pigs, cats, dogs. All help very 
greatly. Many parents do allow their children to keep 
these pets in the vague notion that " it is good for them 
to do so," but they, perhaps, have not a real apprecia- 
tion of the amount of good that these may do, not only 
in the incidental way in which it can lay out a route 
towards matters concerning human sex, but because 
of the great moral advantage that may accrue through 
the children themselves being held entirely responsible 
for the feeding, the care, and the general hygienic well- 
being of the creatures under their care. 

A visit to the South Kensington Museum of Natural 
History may be of inestimable value, And will 
probably do much to enlighten the child without 
any great amount of explanation being necessary. 
Here one may see the grades through which mammalian 
maternal care has evolved. The Duckmole or Duck- 
billed Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) and the 
Spiny Ant-eater (Echidna aculeata) are natives of 



NATURE STUDY 143 

Australia and Tasmania. Both are mammals, with 
simple mammary glands only, and both lay eggs. The 
duckmole lays two eggs at a time in a sort of nest in the 
recesses of its burrow ; here the eggs hatch, the young 
having to break their way through the strong leathery 
shell. The spiny ant-eater seems to form a link between 
the duckmole and the kangaroo, the egg being carried 
in a temporarily developed pouch in which hatching 
occurs and behind which fold the mammary glands are 
situated. Then we come to the Kangaroo, a typical 
marsupial, which brings forth its young in a semi- 
developed condition after five weeks' gestation, but in 
this helpless condition they are transferred to a pouch 
on the abdomen, carefully fed and reared till they are 
strong enough to fend for themselves. 

The American Opossums represent still one stage 
further. The young are less helpless than those of the 
kangaroo at birth, consequently few members of the 
opossum family continue to nurture and carry their 
young in a pouch. Yet the necessity for maternal 
solicitude is not entirely absent ; the little ones are 
still dependent upon their mother for safety. So she 
carries on her back her little ones, who keep themselves 
firm by linking their tails round hers. 1 

1 The particular value of these museum specimens lies, of course, 
in the fact that they are always available, and that, as they are 
arranged in the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, they 
illuminate the story of Mammalian reproduction most helpfully. 
But, of course, a wider educational value comes in the study of 
living animals, and here the keeping of pets aids so greatly ; while in 
Zoological Gardens and sometimes in Parks, many animals and their 
young are often to be seen — a source of delight and wonder. 
Specimens of each of the above animals, together with eggs, or 
young, as the case may be, are to be seen on the second floor. 
Natural History Museum (Mammalian Room), South Kensington. 



CHAPTER VII 

Further Aids towards Understanding the 
Biology of Sex 

In the foregoing chapter we have endeavoured to out- 
line in some way, how simple nature study may be 
utilised to provide a background for reference such as 
may aid the instructor in explaining to children matters 
of sex. 

I do not think by any means that it will always be 
necessary to rear every type indicated in the graduated 
scheme outlined, for, once one has the necessary facts 
concerning the principle of fertilisation and of sex 
differentiation, and when one has the correct simple 
terminology to use, it will frequently be sufficient to 
describe briefly the reproductive process. 

It is quite likely, for instance, that one may keep 
sticklebacks in an aquarium yet not be successful in 
getting them to breed, but the story of the stickle- 
back's courtship, nest-building, and family life may very 
well be told so as to complete, in some measure, the study 
of this interesting little fish. 

Although in the foregoing chapter, in view of the 
general purpose of this book, the racial functions 
and their method of achievement have been dealt with 
fully, in nature-study work, such as might be carried 
out at home or in the school, it is most important that, 

M4 



THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 145 

while appreciating the fact that the racial functions 
are the most important and the influence they exert over 
the organism is the most potential, the reproductive 
process should receive no over-emphasis ; ' it should 
merely receive a proportionate amount of attention 
to that which is given to the other functions of the 
organism and to the study of form, of adaptation to 
environment, of habits ; and to such experimental work 
as can be easily introduced in school. For this reason 
I have indicated, in the foregoing chapter or in the Ap- 
pendix, other points of interest which may well find a 
place in the ordinary study of types, and although the 
scope of this book hardly allows me to enlarge in this 
direction very greatly, capable teachers of nature study 
will easily be able to carry out some of the suggestions. 

Frequently has it been the custom in school to study 
animals, yet to exclude from this study the method by 
which the species is carried on, although habits and family 
life receive a good deal of consideration ; and the sug- 
gestion embodied in this and the foregoing chapter simply 
comes to this, that instead of excluding the racial process 
it should be systematically included in the general work. 

The biologic approach is extremely valuable in that 
it supplies simple facts and places at our disposal a 
suitable terminology ; it gives a completeness of survey 
to the mental outlook. Well, tactfully and sympathetic- 
ally taught, such nature study has tremendous power, 
enlarging and expanding the child's sympathy and 
interest with nature. There is great moral value, too, 
for the training in responsibility which is afforded by 
making the children responsible for the care of animals 
and of plants, may make an early foundation for the 
acceptance of later responsibilities which life may 
10 



146 THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 

bring before them. We cannot expect young children to 
feel any sense of responsibility for those who are older 
than themselves, nor for those who are of the same age 
and strength as themselves, but we can expect them to 
take an intelligent interest and to feel a sense of responsi- 
bility towards those who are younger and more helpless 
than themselves, and this is why the care of animals 
and of plants may be of great value in moral training. 
If such work in nature study is dealt with on the lines 
indicated, it should form a very useful introduction 
to later work in physiology and hygiene, which sub- 
jects, indeed, should be regarded as applied biology. 
Again, it should yield many opportunities of touching 
upon the subject of heredity, although not with any 
degree of detail, nor is it advisable to attempt any 
depth of treatment. Some things are so obvious that we 
do not appreciate them. We get little masses of eggs 
laid on the water-weed by the water-snail (Limncea 
stagnalis), and we accept the fact that these small 
eggs grow up into little snails like their parents, but if 
we pause and ask ourselves, " Why is it that those eggs 
grow into snails {Limncea stagnalis) just like their 
parents ? Why do they not grow into Planorbis snails 
or into water-beetles ? What is it that determines 
that each tiny mass of protoplasm should develop into 
a creature just like its parent ? " A new thought comes 
into our mind. The, poppy seeds are very small, mere 
grains, and yet within each tiny seed there is that which 
can grow into a green plant with hairy leaves of wavy 
outline, with four red petals to its flowers, a curious calyx 
which has the habit of dropping off as the flower opens, 
andblack stamens round a green seed-box, which, in turn, 
can grow into a fruit and produce seeds and scatter them 



THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 147 

just as the parent poppy did. " What is it," we can 
ask, " that determines this — that can exert so great a 
directive force within so small a mass of tissue ? " 

Not the least value of nature work is the psychical 
reaction that it may bring. The element of wonder 
creeps in and bids the unfolding mind expand. The 
tender emotions are stirred. The child's mind is con- 
stantly appreciating, unconsciously, the invisible forces 
of growth, and it is quite possible that such coming into 
mental contact with unseen power may help in later 
life, when the mental outlook has to be adjusted to the 
conception of psychic force and has to assume the 
existence of the spiritual. 

It will be quite obvious that a thorough scheme 
of work, carried out with all the advantages of peda- 
gogical method, could only be achieved at school or 
under a careful pedagogic direction. It will be equally 
obvious that the intimate details concerning human life 
should ideally be conveyed to the child by one or other 
of the parents. So if such work is to be thoroughly 
successful, and thoroughly valuable to its aim, it is 
essential that the home and the school should work 
together in sympathy, that the home should know of the 
work being carried on in the school, and that the school 
should have every sympathy and support from the home. 

To this end, I would suggest that parents should be 
informed of the sequence of nature-study lessons to be 
given week by week, and that each week a short resume 
of the lessons be sent to the parent. A parent, so in- 
formed, would naturally take an interest in the child's 
school-work, and would ask questions concerning it, 
show sympathy with it, and engage the child's con- 
fidence. In this way, it seems that questions arising 



148 THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 

in the child's mind would almost inevitably fall to the 
lot of the parent to answer, and when the first question 
had come, an opportunity would also come of impressing 
upon the child the fact that for any further difficulties 
that it should want solved, or for any further informa- 
tion, it should come again to mother or father. " Be- 
cause these are very important things that we should 
know ; they are very grand things. We do not talk 
to everybody about them, but only to those we love 
best, because they are the best things we can know ; 
you love mother and father best, and so only talk about 
these things to us." 

Nature study in the school may be conceived as 
supplementing and extending elementary knowledge of 
and acquaintance with organic life which children may 
> gain at home, and in regard to the question of sex in- 
struction, we may take it that such definite work carried 
on, on good pedagogic lines in school, will do much to 
give depth and solidarity to teaching at home. One 
can hardly expect that the average parent will be as 
well equipped with nature lore as the well-trained 
teacher, and it may be that, for want of sureness in 
knowledge, parental instruction may have a tendency 
towards a sentimental treatment of the subject. This, 
however, should be obviated if the school and the home 
work together harmoniously, leaving no suggestion of 
superficiality. 

The inspiring thought throughout this work should 
be that, through it, children may be led to realise that 
all living things have two obligations to fulfil, duty 
towards themselves as individuals and duty towards 
the race ; and towards the fulfilment of these obliga- 
tions, the plants proceed automatically, the lower 



THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 149 

animals proceed instinctively, and man proceeds in an 
instinctive way, but because he has the great gift of 
reason, and the power of choice, he is able to raise him- 
self far above the level of the animals. 

The aesthetic value of nature study is very great : 
the inquiring spirit is easily fostered in young children, 
but the soul to see that which is beautiful, and to know 
that it is beautiful, is a later growth. In nature-study 
work it is found that movement in animals appeals 
first to the child's mind. Children of six and seven are 
far more interested to see the way in which a fish swims 
or a bird flies than to study its colours or delicacy of 
outline. Yet the wise teacher, who understands the 
art of teaching a little child, will find many ways of 
stimulating appreciation of the beautiful. 

Before passing on to the possibilities of biologic 
work in secondary schools, one would indicate that, by 
certain simple experimental work on Moulds, it is possible 
to do something to prepare a background such as will 
illuminate later instruction in hygiene. It is possible 
to arrange a very simple series of experiments on the 
growth of moulds x which will bring to light the facts 
that dampness and darkness and stagnant air tend to 
encourage the growth of these plants, and that sun- 
light and fresh air tend to restrict their development, 
and also, by a simple arrangement of experimental 
work, it is easy to show how ubiquitous'germs and spores 
may be. Another simple little observation that may 
havfe some value in driving home an associated idea is 
made when two lots of seed, e.g. beans, are grown under 
identical conditions, but with this difference, that one 
set of seeds has been soaked in water till it has become 

1 See Appendix. 



150 THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 

covered and impregnated with bacterial slime, while 
the other set has been soaked for a short time only. 
A comparison of the way in which these two sets of seeds 
grow shows that the healthy seeds grow up into fine 
sturdy plants, while the diseased ones do not develop 
at all, or, if they do develop, become very poor, weakly 
little plants. 1 

A simple example like this may serve to bring home 
the idea that young lives are very easily injured, and 
that if they are injured by disease before they are born 
they are little likely to grow up healthily and well. 

In the elementary school, opportunity and resources 
of equipment do not usually allow of much further 
extension of nature-study work than has already been 
outlined ; indeed, in the upper standards, nature study 
is more often left out of the curriculum. It sometimes 
gives place to physiology and hygiene, or to a series of 
lessons on " Health and Home " ; but it would be better 
if these subjects were not allowed to displace nature 
study, but rather were taken in. addition. 

In the secondary school, where specialist teachers 
are responsible for various subjects, and where biology, 
botany, zoology usually find a place in the curriculum, 
there is further opportunity of extending the mental 
horizon and of substantiating early knowledge. 

The study, carried out with the use of the microscope, 
of the lower forms of plant life allows of an acquaintance 
with the primal reproductive elements, the egg and the 
sperm. Seaweeds are particularly useful for this, for 
not only, if taken at maturity, may the egg-cell (ovum) 
and the sperm-cell (antherozoid) be recognised, but the 
actual process of fertilisation may be observed. 1 Some of 
1 See Appendix. 



THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 151 

the filamentous algae are also useful in this way. The 
first stages of development, too, may be easily seen. 
Here again, the seaweeds are found to be useful, for 
frequently the first divisional processes of the fertilised 
egg-cell may be watched under the microscope. 

Another interesting bit of observational work in 
embryology which may be carried out quite simply 
is the development of the water-snail or of the slug. 
Each of these may be watched under the microscope 
if the spawn of the water-snail, or 
the eggs of the slug, be placed in -<-> £» v>^ 

a watch-glass of water, and ob- ^cffi?!?!^ ( 
served. To see the embryo pul- ^4}4\?^C^I 
sating with life and performing Si) 
definite rhythmical movements 
within the egg-wall has the same 
awe-inspiring effect as has a sight 
of a minute water - flea when, Showing fertilisation in 

_ . ' the seaweed. The 

under the microscope, the heart ovum is being sur- 

of this tiny creature, in itself just rounded by anthero- 

visible to the naked eye, may be zoids » one of which 

, will effect an entrance 

seen to beat. and fuse with the 

Some of the water - fleas are nucleus, 
valuable also in another direction. 
These creatures are minute crustaceans, to be found 
in pond water darting vigorously hither and thither, 
or in winter-time moving slowly over the mud at 
the bottom of the pond. Daphnia and Simocephalus 
both have a carapace compressed laterally. They 
move by vigorous darting movements through the water. 
The heart is towards the dorsal surface and, in the brood 
chamber, just under the dorsal edge of the carapace, 
the mature female may be seen to be bearing one or more 




152 THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 

large eggs. This is a valuable illustration, aid sufficiently 
remote from man to be explicit without being stimula- 
tive. Cyclops, another minute crustacean, is not com- 
pressed laterally ; its body is more definitely segmented, 
and the mature female carries eggs in two egg-sacs 




A Water-' Flea ' (Daphnia) (enlarged). 

Showing eggs within the brood -chamber under the carapace. 
In this species, which may be ^ of an inch long, the eggs are 
plainly visible with a hand lens in January and February. 



attached to the abdomen : here the eggs are carried 
till they hatch. 

Plant life forms many opportunities of dealing with 
physiologic and reproductive questions which will 
help towards the accomplishment of our aim in sex 
education, and particularly one may refer to how 
the study of the fertilisation process in plants may lead 
naturally to a knowledge of what hybridisation means, 



THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 153 

An acquaintance with Mendel's work in connection with 
plant hybridisation should follow. 

Gregor Mendel, born in 1822, was an Austrian monk 
who performed, in connection with plant hybridisation, 
certain experiments, and who drew from the results of 




Cyclops — another ' Water-Flea ' — (enlarged). 

(Natural size ^ inch.) Female showing egg-sacs attached to 
the abdomen. 



these experiments certain conclusions. His results, 
however, published in 1865, were, curiously enough, 
overlooked by the biological world till the end of the 
nineteenth century, when they were rediscovered, and 
similar experiments in hybridisation were carried on 



154 THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 

by many investigators ; a whole new world of biologic 
research has been opened up. 

Mendel's experiments were carried on with pea 
plants, these having constant characters in the several 
varieties, and also being very easy to manipulate for 
cross-pollination. He pollinated flowers of a tall 
variety with the pollen from a dwarf variety. The 
seeds resulting he collected and germinated ; all the 
plants from this generation were tall, in spite of the fact 
that one of the parents was dwarf. These plants, in 
turn, produced flowers ; these were pollinated among 
themselves, that is to say, the hybrids were fertilised 
by their own hybrid pollen. The seeds resulting from 
this were all collected and germinated, and the plants 
now obtained were found to be ; some of them tall and 
some of them dwarf, the proportion of tails to dwarfs 
being three tails to one dwarf. So it is seen that the 
dwarfness, which was characteristic of one of the grand- 
parents, and which, though not apparent in the first 
filial generation, reappeared in the second filial genera- 
tion ; so, evidently, the dwarfness, although not ap- 
parent in the hybrid, was present, though in a latent 
or obscured condition. A character which may be 
obscured in this way is spoken of as ' recessive,' the 
obscuring factor or character being said to be ' domin- 
ant.' But, further, it was found that if the dwarfs were 
self-pollinated all their offspring became dwarf plants, 
that is to say, the dwarf was a pure strain : and when 
the tails were self-pollinated, one quarter of the whole 
number produced tall plants only, that is, they were pure 
tails ; while the remaining two quarters, self-pollinated, 
were found to be hybrids, for they produced tails and 
dwarfs again in the proportion of three to one. Mendel's 



THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 155 

finding may thus be expressed in the form of a chart 
for the sake of brevity and to show the connectedness : 
Tall x Dwarf 

Hybrid (Tall-Dwarfs) 
(self-fertilised). 



75 % Tails found to be 25 % Dwarfs. 

25 % pure Tails and 
50 % Hybrids. 

Or, using symbols, ' T ' for * tallness,' ' d ' for ' dwarfness ' : 

T x d 

Td x Td 



TT Td Td dd 

25 per cent. v , • 25 per cent. 

50 per cent. 

Such was Mendel's early experiment. Other experi- 
ments were carried out in connection with other char- 
acters and in connection with combination of characters, 
and, since the rediscovery of Mendel's work, research 
in connection with the transmission of characters from 
one generation to another, has been carried out in 
many branches of vegetable and animal hybridisation. 

The ordinary scope of work in the secondary school 
hardly lends itself to a very extensive or indeed to more 
than an elementary acquaintance with Mendelian in- 
heritance, but the important fact to be brought home 
is this, the fact of possible recessiveness, that a character 
may be rendered latent and may crop up in succeeding 
generations. 1 

1 See Mendel ism, by Punnett, published by McMillan. Recent 
Progress in Variation, Heredity, and Evolution, by Lock, published by 
John Murray. Heredity, by J. A. Thomson, published by Murray, fu 



156 THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 

Mendel offered a suggestion for the explanation 
of these happenings. Taking the case of the hybrid 
tall peas, in the first instance, the parent tall plant was 
of a pure strain, that is to say, all the germ-cells produced 
by that plant (whether they be ova or pollen grains) 
carry within themselves and transmit the capacity for 
growing into tall plants — -conveniently expressed, they 
bear the ' factor ' for tallness. The dwarf parent 
plant, likewise of a pure strain, produces germ-cells, 
bearing only the * factor ' for dwarf ness. 

When, however, a germ-cell of the tall plant unites 
with a germ-cell of the dwarf plant, the fertilised egg so 
formed contains both the factor for tallness and the 
factor for dwarfness ; though when it germinates it 
grows up into a tall plant. 

Mendel's theory in regard to this hybrid tall plant is 
this : that its germ-cells (both pollen grains and eggs) 
bear the power of growing up into tall plants or into 
dwarf plants. That is to say, they bear the factor 
for tallness or for dwarfness only, and, further, Mendel 
held that half the germ-cells produced contain the 
factor for tallness and half of them contain the factor 
for dwarfness. When, therefore, this hybrid is self- 
fertilised, and half its eggs bear the factor for tallness, 
half for dwarfness, also half its pollen grains bear the 
factor for tallness and half for dwarfness, the chances 
are that these germ-cells will fertilise one another in the 
following proportion : Half of the * dwarf-bearing ' 
eggs may meet half of the i dwarf-bearing ' sperms, and 
half of them may meet ' tall-bearing ' sperms. Similarly 

the Central Hall, South Kensington Museum of Natural History, 
there are several exhibits representing Mendelian inheritance— 
guinea-pigs, varieties of maize, mice, pigeons, peas, etc. 



THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 157 

half of the ' tall-bearing ' eggs may meet * tall-bearing ■ 
sperms, and half of them may meet ' dwarf-bearing ' 
sperms. So that the result will be twice as many 
hybrids as of each of the pure types. Represented by 
a diagram, it may be thus : — 

Let T T d d « eggs from hybrid. 

\/ ! • 

T T d d* * sperms from hybrid. 

Dotted lines indicate chances of fertilisation, 
resulting individuals will be represented by : — 

TT, Td, Td, dd. 

As an instance of the way in which new varieties 
have been obtained, take the following : 

Some pea plants have seeds that are characteristic- 
ally round, and others have seeds characteristically 
wrinkled, ' roundness' being dominant to * wrinkledness/ 
Again, this round variety of peas has yellow seeds, and 
the wrinkled variety has green seeds. When these two 
varieties, the round-yellow-seeded and the wrinkled- 
green-seeded, were crossed, the result was offspring all 
bearing round yellow seeds, that is, like the dominant 
plant. 

These hybrids, on being fertilised, are found to yield 
some round-yellow-seeded plants, some round-green- 
seeded plants, some wrinkled-yellow-seeded, and some 
wrinkled-green-seeded. 

The actual proportions in which these are found are : 
nine round-yellow to three round-green to three 
wrinkled-yellow to one wrinkled-green. 

9RY+3Rg+3wY+lwg. 



158 THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 

So that it is apparent that here, in this generation, 
two new combinations of characters are obtained, 
namely, a round-green-seeded plant and a yellow- 
wrinkled-seeded plant. 

Biology finds a place in the ordinary scheme of work 
in many, if not most, girls' schools, although generally 
more attention is given to plant than to animal life. 
It is greatly to be regretted that biology finds so small 
a place in many boys' schools, for the knowledge it 
can supply, and the mental equipment it bestows, are 
invaluable in the way in which they lead to an under- 
standing of life. 

In the secondary school, the course of biologic work 
should be made to lead up to an acquaintance with the 
doctrine of evolution. It is easier to introduce this 
subject to the adolescent mind if one has certain facilities 
in the way of early acquaintance with plant and animal 
life to draw upon, by way of illustration. 

The evolution theory is an attempt to explain how the 
various forms of life now inhabiting the earth have come 
to be what they are. Manifold are the creatures, in- 
finite the varieties : profuse are the resemblances, 
constant are the differences. How have all these 
differences come to be ? How have the resemblances 
established themselves ? These are questions which 
the evolution theory attempts to answer. 

The cat resembles the tiger in so many ways that we 
are bound to recognise a relationship between them : 
yet just as constantly the cat and the tiger differ from 
one another in certain features ; there is no confusion 
of the species ' cat ' with the species ' tiger.' Similarly 
in the plant world, numerous relationships, yet involving 
constant distinctive features, immediately range them- 



THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 159 

selves before the mind's eye : the sweet-pea and the 
laburnum, the mushroom and the toadstool, the pansy 
and the violet, the wheat and the barley. 

The earthworm with its simple body-tube of simple 
muscle fibres, with its elementary digestive system, its 
rudiment of a nervous system, its ' hint ' of a brain, 
its mere beginnings of a respiratory mechanism — is 
altogether an inelaborate form of animal life, seemingly 
very far removed from the frog, the fish, and the bird. 
Yet compared with the one-celled organism, the amoeba, 
the earthworm itself is a monument of complex organisa- 
tion. Even the untrained eye can recognise and ap- 
preciate the fact that animate objects vary greatly in 
their elaboration of structure, and can recognise the 
lowly and the high ; while the^ trained mind of the 
biologist discriminates so finely, that it arranges the ani- 
mal kingdom in a genealogical tree, showing the stages 
in progressive elaboration from the lower to the higher 
types. 

The evolutionist holds that all types are descended 
from simpler though similar types, that minute, gradual, 
or sudden changes in organic condition have arisen as 
permanent and transmissible modifications ; that, to 
return to our illustration of the cat and the tiger, far 
back in the aeons of the past, neither the cat nor the 
tiger as we now know them inhabited the earth, but 
that their common ancestor, essentially cat-like and 
equally essentially tiger-like, prowled, and that, from 
that pre-cat and pre-tiger type two lines of divergence 
arose, one culminating in the cat as we now know it, 
and the other in the tiger. As to the ultimate beginnings 
of organic life, the biologist can only postulate, and he 
does postulate the existence of simple living organisms 



160 THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 

as a beginning to the tale of evolution, and holds that 
from these initial simple forms of life, by a gradual 
accumulation of * betterments ' and an elimination of 
types possessing * weaknesses,' an infinite variety of 
living creatures has come to people the earth. The 
phrase i accumulation of betterments ' needs elabora- 
tion. Variability is a great fact : within the members 
of one family only, many slight differences occur ; no 
two children of the same parents are exactly alike : no 
two kittens in the same litter are identical ; and though 
the variations in many of the lower forms of animal 
and also of plant life may be less obvious or even un- 
detectable to the casual observation of the untrained 
eye, they are recognisable to the trained eye, and 
commensurable. The shepherd can identify each lamb 
in his flock ; the botanist with his special aim in view, 
can individualise his plants. The ubiquity of variation 
is complete. Many variations are of a type useful to 
the creature, aiding it in meeting the conditions of life 
more successfully ; other variations may be, so far as 
can be judged, of indifferent value ; while yet again 
variations may arise which are of a distinctly dis- 
advantageous nature. Creatures so handicapped with 
disadvantageous variation will, under the natural 
conditions of struggle which predominate existence, 
be eliminated ; creatures possessing a useful variation 
will tend to succeed in the struggle for existence, and 
if their variation is of a transmissible type (as many 
variations are) will reproduce their variational type; and, 
further, in the event of pairing with a similarly varied 
mate, will tend to strengthen and increase the valuable 
variation. And by such * accumulation of betterments/ 
continued over long periods of time, natural organic 



THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 161 

progress, i.e. evolution, has been achieved. It is to 
Charles Darwin our thoughts turn in connection with 
this Doctrine of Descent : not that the idea originated 
with him ; the evolution idea has been part and parcel 
of philosophic thought ever since the days of the early 
Greek philosophers, but it existed as a philosophic 
idea only, as such finding a place in the thought of 
succeeding ages. It was only towards the end of the 
eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth, 
that biologic thought attempted to assert a scientific 
substantiation of the doctrine of descent, when Lamarck, 
Bufion, and Erasmus Darwin, and some others, came 
forward with speculations as to the cause of variations 
and of consequent evolution. But it is to Charles 
Darwin that we owe, as Professor J. Arthur Thomson 
puts it, " the first successful vindication of the evolution 
idea." * 

In his Origin of Species (1859) he brought together 
a vast series of facts and observations which bear out 
the evolutionist idea. He pointed out the fact that 
under domestication and by man's careful selection 
many organic types (animal and plant) are in process of 
variation and evolution at the present day, and that, 
as man selects consciously, and so fixes varieties, so 
has Nature c selected ' and fixed in the long process of 
time. He called attention to the anatomical resemblances 
to be found among a series of animals — the f orelimb of 
man, the bat, the dog, the seal — all essentially similar 
in structure yet each modified to perform a special 
function, and sees a reasonable explanation for this 
conditional variation of the forelimb in the assumption 
that all four have descended from a single ancestral 

1 Darwinism and Human Life t J. Arthur Thomson, p. 17. 
II 



162 THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 

type, from which four different variations have been 
cumulatively intensified in process of time. The 
geological record of fossils — the story which the rocks 
unfold— shows very clearly that types, different from 
yet related to those now existent, have inhabited the 
earth in past ages, and some of these relics supply a 
close series of links between the past and present 
forms. 

The geographical distribution of species leading in 
many cases to racial isolation, is only to be explained 
by the theory that at some period earlier in land forma- 
tion, a common type became severed from the mainland 
(e.g. the animals peculiar to Australia, the special 
varieties of birds and plants to be found on certain 
oceanic islands), and thereafter diverged along its own 
specific lines of evolution. 

In the history of the individual itself there is more 
than a suggestion of evolutionary progress. The fer- 
tilised egg strongly suggests the unicellular animal, and 
in its progressive stages of growth from the egg to 
maturity, suggests the several typical creatures which 
lie behind it (or below it) on the genealogic tree. The 
frog, for instance, begins life as a fertilised egg, a single 
cell, speedily becomes a ball of cells, elongates, suggesting 
a worm-like condition, rapidly becomes possessed of a 
backbone, as a tadpole reveals its fish ancestry, then 
finally discarding past biologic habit, becomes a frog. 
Even the mammalian embryo, beginning as a one-celled 
creature, passes through a similar, though less emphasised, 
recapitulation of its racial history, showing, for example, 
at one stage a hint of gill-slits, though they have no 
respiratory function. 

These are, briefly, some of the ideas so carefully 



THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 163 

elaborated by Darwin in his Origin of Species, and ex- 
tended later by other biologic thought. 

With the origin, cause, and perpetuation of variations 
speculative thought has always been intensely con- 
cerned. The perpetuation of variations, i.e. transmis- 
sion from one generation to another, is accounted for 
by the fact of inheritance, that is, those methods and 
processes by which the constitution and characteristics 
of the parents are handed on to their offspring. And 
the operative factor which determines which variations 
shall be transmitted ultimately to become specific 
characteristics, Darwin, basing his ideas upon (a) the 
widespread variability of organisms and (b) the tremend- 
ous reproductiveness which leads to keen struggle for 
existence in organic life — called ' Natural Selection.' In 
this struggle for existence, those organisms which were 
possessed of a variation favourable to meeting the 
struggle would tend to survive and pass on their advan- 
tageous trait : those less favourably adapted to meet 
their environment would tend to die out. Natural 
Selection, recognised as it is, as a factor of predominating 
importance in the determination of evolution, is, however, 
no longer held to be responsible for all cases and con- 
ditions ; certain difficulties stand in the way of its 
universal application. 1 

Variations themselves may be of sudden distinctive 
appearance (e.g. the curious origin of i Shirley ' poppies : 
these plants are all the descendants of one flower found 
in a garden clump of wild poppies in 1880), 2 or they may 
be of comparatively small beginnings and intensified by 

1 The reader is referred to the literature on Evolution, given in 
the Bibliography. 

2 Lock, Recent Progress in Variation, Heredity, and Evolution. 



164 THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 

consecutive transmission, fostered by fortunate en- 
vironment. 

1 Modifications ' are changed conditions which arise 
in the individual, due to some circumstance of use, 
or misuse, or environment. These are known as 
1 acquired characters,' and are generally held to be 
concerned with the individual only, and of no racial 
importance, being intransmissible. The Lamarckian 
theory of evolution assumed the transmissibility of 
acquired characters, but there is, up to the present, no 
convincing evidence of this. 

To summarise briefly : Of organic evolution we can 
recognise that what a creature is now, is the product of 
its hereditary endowment, its reaction to its environ- 
ment, and its exercise of function. The central thought 
of the doctrine of evolution is one of progress : that, 
as Professor J. A. Thomson puts it, " the present is the 
child of the past and the parent of the future." Not 
only in regard to physical life is this doctrine accepted : 
mental processes, emotional life, social conduct, and 
ethical ideas are all recognised to have evolved to their 
present degree and condition. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Ethical Training 

Sex education may be accomplished in part by the 
giving of definite information regarding those processes 
by which life is transmitted from one generation to 
another ; such an acquaintance with the many phases 
of Nature's workings is bound to have an automatic 
reaction upon character formation, 1 widening the 
mental horizon, intensifying love of the beautiful 
whether it be in form, in colour, or in function, infiltrating 
the soul with constant mental contact with the invisible 
forces of growth. But valuable as this knowledge 
may be made, according to the spirit of the teacher, it 
is not all-sufficient. Sex hygiene is not only an affair 
of the body ; it is an affair of the mind. There is a 
psychic as well as a physical relation to consider, and 
the psychic is even more important, though it cannot 
be wholly effective if divorced from the physical. 

1 " And from the fixed place of Heaven she saw 
Time like a pulse shake fierce 
Through all the worlds." 

" The Blessed Damozel," D. G. Rossbtti. 

Some girls in a literature class were asked to explain this passage. 
They found it difficult, but one commented, " I can't quite explain, 
but I should think she would have somewhat the same feelings and 
attitude as I had when, through the microscope, I watched the heart 
of a small water-flea beating." 

165 



166 ETHICAL TRAINING 

Who would seek to instil an ideal of right sex conduct 
must not be of a lower ideal himself ; he must view 
sex aright, and, with a personal irradiation of upright- 
ness and integrity he must be enabled to carry con- 
viction into the minds of those — whether they be 
children, adolescents, or adults — whom with sympathetic 
insight, he would guide. " Children are . . . inevitably 
suggestible," says McDougall, " firstly because of their 
lack of knowledge and lack of systematic organisation 
of such knowledge as they have ; secondly, because 
the superior size, strength, knowledge, and reputation 
of their elders tend to evoke the impulse of submission 
and to throw them into the receptive attitude." 1 If, 
then, the adult has his own vision of sex clouded and 
be-mirked, the impression will reflect itself upon the 
childish vision also, veiling in grey, or even in black, 
what should shine forth in white. To the pure, sex is 
pure : the little child's questions, vague or searching, 
crudely expressed though they may often be, are pure. 
To the elder's task be it added to maintain, foster, and 
enhance the purity. 

We have learnt the fact that all living organisms 
reproduce their kind ; the lowly ones, for the most 
part, reproduce by the simplest possible method, that 
of dividing into two, so the parent becomes merged 
into two offspring. Sometimes in these lowly creatures 
two organisms unite — ' conjugate ' — and so become 
merged into the new generation. But such simple 
means of reproduction is found in the lowest plants 
and animals only. Above these lowest types, the re- 
productive plan is carried out by the liberation from 
the parent of simple one-celled parts of itself. These 

1 Social Psychology, p. 100. 



ETHICAL TRAINING 167 

one-celled parts, in the lowest types, are similar in shape 
and constitution : they are called ' gametes.' When 
two gametes conjugate, the resulting organism is an 
1 embryo ' — the first stage of the new generation. Simple 
conjugation of two similar gametes is, however, quite 
relegated to the lower forms of plant (some of the 
algae, e.g. Spirogyra) and animal life {e.g. Paramoecium), 
though it is not, by any means, the only method of 
reproduction found even among these lowly forms. 
Many of them liberate dissimilar gametes, the one 
inactive, comparatively bulky, the other small in bulk 
and exceedingly motile : the former is known as the 
' egg ' or ' female gamete ' ; the latter as the ' sperm ' 
or ' male gamete.' Here we have the beginning of 
' sex,' and the beginnings of sex behaviour. The slight, 
active sperm is attracted by the more passive, alluring 
egg. The attractiveness of the one and the suscepti- 
bility of the other are the initial cause of sex differentia- 
tion. A higher stage of evolution shows us the libera- 
tion of the differing gametes by differing parents, an 
allocation of the one type of parent to the one type of 
gamete, that parent which produces male gametes 
(sperms) having in many respects characteristic dis- 
tinguishing behaviour when compared with the parental 
organism which produces female gametes (ova). The 
essential quality which leads to the attraction of the 
sperm by the egg (and thus fertilisation is assured) 
passes also to the parental organism responsible for the 
production of eggs or sperms as the case may be, so 
that, in order that the sperms and eggs may be brought 
within effective reach of one another, Nature has decreed 
that the parental organisms themselves shall be mutually 
attracted ; and in the gratification of sex desire in the 



168 ETHICAL TRAINING 

individual the success of the species is assured. Re- 
production is carried on essentially to the cost of the 
individual : sex desire is essentially egoistic, selfish. 
In the lower animals sex desire — the sex impulse — 
predominates periodically only, and during the intervals 
between the non-racially-directed periods, is latent. 
But in man, on his higher plane of evolution, it is not 
so. Sex desire forms a more or less constant constituent 
of his functional years of life. From his behaviour in 
meeting the claims of sex — the egoistic — and of race — 
the altruistic — emerges social conduct. Unbridled 
yielding to the pressure of sex desire is thoroughly 
antisocial. It is for each to decide whether his conduct 
shall be only selfish or whether it shall be imbued with 
unselfishness which shall make for the highest social 
integrity. The high degree of evolution which civilised 
man has attained in his emotional life is compensatingly 
attained in his intellectual life : he has the power of 
reasoning and the gift of choice. Out of these comes 
forth his great responsibility. For, in sex is the funda- 
mental mainspring of all that we prize — home-life, 
family-affection, father- and mother-love, and all that it 
provides, love, courtship, marriage ; it is the inspiration 
and cause of manliness and womanliness — and bound up 
in all that so concerns the individual, is the welfare of 
the race. We cannot, then, view sex itself awrong when 
we regard its fundamental initiating power. 

But the greater the gift, the greater the responsibility 
it brings with it, and the greater the possibility of 
failure : the farther the pendulum may swing to the 
right, the farther may it swing to left. And herein 
lies the tragedy of sex — that, uncontrolled or misguided, 
it may prove a curse ; or denied a sublimated outlet, 



ETHICAL TRAINING 169 

it may be cramped, crushed, only to break out in some 
abnormal guise or perversion. The bond that brings 
man and woman together, that may merge into lifelong 
companionship, founded on mutual interests and love, 
is the supreme gift, the gift that should be preserved in 
its entirety till the highest call bids it come forth. But 
the preservation of this gift may be, to many natures, a 
task of no small difficulty : the temptations to squander 
it or to misuse it are legion. Success in meeting the 
temptations which social life imposes will largely depend 
upon power of facing and overcoming temptation ; it 
is largely a question of self-control. The sex emotions 
are stronger in some natures than in others ; on the 
whole, they are more direct and violent in the male 
than in the female. The variability of the tempera- 
mental factor, however, must be borne in mind : what 
constitutes a severe test for one nature impinges upon 
another nature without making any impression. In 
general, too, it must be remembered that the strong, 
self-reliant natures are often those which are accom- 
panied by the strongest sex impulses, but that, while 
a weaker nature would seek help and would confide its 
difficulties, the stronger, self-contained nature will keep 
its difficulties to itself, and may, through lack of a 
counsellor, have a needlessly hard struggle imposed 
upon it. Sympathy with child-life and with adolescent 
nature should guide elders to render tactfully the help 
which may be so much needed. 

The disturbing power of the sex impulse may be very 
strong, and temptations to yield may be severe. Witness 
the effort of will necessary to overcome the habit of 
self-abuse ; witness the difficulty that faces adolescents 
of keen, emotional nature who may be anxious to pre- 



170 ETHICAL TRAINING 

serve pre-marital chastity ; witness the task imposed 
upon the man or woman who, because someone is 
dependent upon them, cannot afford to marry. Marriage 
itself should not be regarded as an opportunity for 
unbridled sexuality ; it calls for mutual restraint and 
regard — a point which should be well driven home, 
especially in the training of youths. Take again the 
case of husband and wife who would observe the sanctity 
of pregnancy. Girls who, often not knowing the depth 
of impression which their actions and conduct may 
create, would pander to their vanity, their love of 
' creating an impression,' are called upon, in the light 
of sex control, to forego the pleasure which their desire 
to attract — an evolutionary product — may crave 
unconfinedly. 

These are just some of the struggles which fall to the 
lot of most people, and which, if self-control be weak, 
though knowledge maybe there, maybe met inadequately 
or even unresistingly. 

The fundamental impulses of organic progress are 
two — hunger and love. Hunger we guide, control, limit 
its gratification to subserve the needs of the body- 
nutrition — and bring into line with custom ; just so 
should the sex impulse be recognised, controlled, and 
limited to subserve, in its twofold capacity of enhancing 
the individual and of ensuring the race, the function of 
reproduction. Indiscriminate yielding to the hunger 
impulse, when and wherever one may desire, regardless 
of whose property we may be stealing, is antisocial : 
similarly, unbridled yielding to the love impulse is 
antisocial. 

We have already seen in an earlier chapter, howcontrol 
of the sex impulse may be greatly aided by habitual 



ETHICAL TRAINING 171 

sublimation of sex energy. This thought forms a basis 
for much of our plan of supervision of child and adolescent 
life. We also saw in the same connection, how greatly 
the habit of self-control may be instilled in childhood. 
The relation of will-power to an upright sex life is 
manifestly of supreme importance. Will-power reacting 
subjectively leads to self-control. The supreme test of 
self-control is conduct in meeting an emergency, a 
sudden temptation. " The protection of youth from 
the dangers of sex," says Fcerster, 1 " is a question of 
power rather than of knowledge." That may be, but 
ethical training in regard to sex, without knowledge 
of the facts of sex, is hardly likely to be of avail. A 
boy of fifteen or sixteen, for example, knows that certain 
pleasurable feelings invade his consciousness, knows 
that they are part of his experience and of the experience 
of every other boy he knows. If he has no information 
as to their meaning, their relation to his future responsi- 
bilities of procreation, that these feelings are just the 
forerunner of what he should, in an ideal relation of 
sanctified marriage experience, and that to that end 
they should be consecrated — what reason has he for 
applying any ethical injunction towards self-control 
to these normal demands of his being, unless there is 
direct reference to them ? 

Our educational system is frequently charged with 
neglect of moral education. One must, however, re- 
cognise that little good will be done by direct injunction, 
by ' lecturing ' : great good may come through direct 
information, providing a rational basis for conduct ; 
indirect training in will-habit, indirect training in sub- 

1 Marriage and the Sex Problem, by F. W. Foerster. Published by 
Wells, Gardner, Darton, & Co. 



172 ETHICAL TRAINING 

limation. The spirit of asceticism, which should be 
encouraged right from childhood by small acts of volun- 
tary self-denial, will find its justification and reward 
when the storm-imperilled nature comes safely through. 
Lord Roberts, we are told, had a presentiment that the 
day would come when his services would be needed by 
the country, and when the Boer War was proclaimed, 
he told a colleague that for nineteen years he had led 
an abstemious life to be ready for it — through all those 
years he passed through a regimen of self-discipline in 
order to meet, when it came, the country's call efficiently. 1 
Self-discipline as a well-established habit will lead 
to moderation — temperance in all things. He who is 
luxuriously self-indulgent in food, habitation, pleasures, 
is likely to find self-restraint in regard to sex much more 
of a difficult matter than he who is more temperate 
in his ways of living. Of alcoholic intemperance from 
the racial point of view there is much to say ; from the 
social point of view its effects are far-reaching and 
disastrous ; both the results upon the race and upon 
society, however, are the outcome of alcoholic intemper- 
ance in the individual. Lack of judgment, weakened 
self-control, are the immediate results of intoxication, 
and if habituated, lead to deterioration of the moral 
fibre. The majority of those men and women, we are 
told, who have departed from the path of continence, 
made their first downward step when under the influence 
of alcoholic excitement, which, not only weakening the 
sense of discrimination between right and wrong, and 
inhibiting self-control, casts an exhilarating glamour 
over the circumstances and the consequences of the 
acts in which they are invited to take part. 

1 The Times, 16th November 1914. 



ETHICAL TRAINING 173 

While we should aim at achieving sex education very 
largely in indirect ways, complemented by biological, 
physiological, and hygienic instruction, it will of course 
be obvious that many adolescents who have not had 
the advantage of careful supervision and instruction, or 
who stand in particular need of help, may require direct 
information for the management of their sex life. Such 
young men and young girls often come within the reach 
of social or religious organisations, through which the 
appeal may be made. Youths and girls of this age 
are not inclined to accept moral injunctions blindly; 
they want to know why they should pursue the line of 
conduct urged upon them : will it be any advantage to 
them ? They have probably learnt wrongly that con- 
tinence is harmful to a man, and view the social diseases 
as of little or no importance to the individual ; indeed, 
among many of them there is the idea that a boy is not 
a man till he has contracted one of these diseases. A 
correct view of sex should be presented to them ; based 
upon an account of the role of the internal secretions, 
the possibility and the value of leading a continent life 
should be seriously impressed ; recognition of the tre- 
mendous sway which the sex impulse may exercise 
should lead to a frank confidence in the teacher's broad- 
mindedness ; then the relation of will and self-control to 
sex integrity should be brought forward prominently. 
Everyday life may, to the unfortified, present innumer- 
able testing circumstances which may render restraint 
difficult. Various sensory impressions are liable to 
react upon the racial organs, and stimulate them to 
undue activity : more particularly does this stimula- 
tion affect the racial zone directly, in the case of youths 
and men. Obscene pictures, erotic plays and stories, 



174 ETHICAL TEAINING 

' suggestive ' actions and costume in women, are among 
the causes giving rise to such sensory impressions, 
while many may be of a more subtle nature, e.g. certain 
aromatic odours, music, certain tactile impressions, as, 
for example, the ' feel ' of fur, may each have an effect 
in individual and special cases. Now, it is very much 
a question of will-power as to how far a man allows 
these sensory impressions to predominate and affect 
his racial organs. Again, in addition to revelling in 
acquaintance with erotic and obscene literature, plays, 
pictures, etc., he may allow ideas of this type to permeate 
his imagination, permitting his thoughts to dwell upon 
them with erotic tendency. Both the mental habits so 
fostered tend to lead to constant sex excitement, which 
is, of course, exceedingly debilitating from a physical, 
mental, and moral point of view. Supervisors and 
advisers of youth should understand the relation of 
sensory impressions to sexual stimulation, but, in their 
endeavour to help youthhood towards sex control 
should not suggest. To tell a youth that the sight of 
the semi-nude stimulates passion, so it seems, may tend 
to arouse feelings which may not be awake at all,' and 
may so bring about an unhealthy condition of mind. 
The difficulty should be met in this way. Suppose a 
youth speaks of having strong sexual feelings at times. 
Find out by judicious questioning when they are most 
troublesome, and so determine the nature of the stimulus. 
Point out this so that he may understand his own case 
and master it. The nature of other cases should not be 
enlarged upon at all unless the youth shows an inquiring 
spirit : to evade wKich will, of course, be harmfully 
provocative. But by exercising keen will-power over 
the direction of thoughts, and by resolutely closing the 



ETHICAL TRAINING 175 

imagination to the sensory impression of erotic subjects, 
and thereby rendering it immune to harmful impression, 
a youth may greatly fortify himself against sexual 
laxity and distress. He should be trained, and train 
himself, right from boyhood to appreciate the aesthetic 
purely, and should absolutely free himself from the 
dominion of eroticism. There is much to be said in 
regard to the training of girls, that they should so deport 
themselves and so dress themselves as to place the 
minimum of difficulty in the way of masculine restraint ; 
at the same time, the male mental attitude should be 
pure and cool enough to refrain from susceptibility 
to such slight — generally quite innocent — provocation. 
The more frequently he exerts his will-power to triumph, 
the more easily will it act for him in the day of sudden 
emergency, and the more easily will he find himself able 
to tread his path through life's experiences. Should he 
fail to exert self -discipline, should he yield not once, but 
many times, to the impulse of sensual thoughts, then the 
mental habit so formed will become so detrimentally 
strong as to overwhelm any effort of will to preserve 
mental and emotional serenity. Exactly the same 
takes place in regard to alcoholic indulgence : the 
first acquaintance may produce but small effect ; a weak 
mental nature soon finds, though, that the dominion 
of alcohol is difficult to overcome : the more frequent 
the indulgence, the more deeply the habit is established 
and the more difficult it is to uproot. 

With girls the question of the exercise of self-control 
is more in the direction of cultivating restraint in 
conduct : that they should not weaken themselves by 
allowing the mind to ponder over and to luxuriate in 
erotic thoughts. If there is anything that puzzles them 



176 ETHICAL TRAINING 

they should seek competent advice, and disburden 
themselves of their difficulty. They should be led to 
understand quite clearly a girl's responsibility for social 
purity, how very greatly this depends upon the reserve 
of woman. In talking to girls, one has to remember 
that the adolescent girl may be very sensitive, and these 
matters, though she should understand them, must be 
put very gently and tactfully in order that the delicate, 
sensitive nature should not receive any warping blow. 
The ideal should be presented first, and then advice on 
how to climb towards it. 

Before leaving this matter of self-control, the question 
of its relation to self-abuse should be considered. In 
addition to measures of physical and mental hygiene, 
which aid considerably towards cure, and which have 
already been indicated in an earlier chapter, great mental 
effort to advance self-mastery is necessary. It should 
be pointed out quite clearly that the oftener the impulse 
is yielded to, the more difficult will it be to obtain self- 
mastery. Every appeal to aid towards self-control 
should be made, by encouraging desire to do nothing 
unworthy, desire to please father and mother, desire to 
grow up strong and healthy, mentally and physically — 
and so on. 

A boy who would attain his fullest powers — not only 
physical and mental, but social — of manhood, the girl 
who would blossom into magnificent womanhood, must 
effect absolute self-restraint. Let the boy or girl know 
that they have their adviser's fullest sympathy ; that 
if they fail once, twice, or many times, they may always 
be assured of sympathy and re-encouragement so long 
as they continue to strive. Every boy and every girl 
more or less unconsciously looks forward to adulthood, 



ETHICAL TRAINING 177 

the day when they, in their turn, will inspire con- 
fidence and respect and may exert authority. But unless 
they have full confidence in themselves, unless they can 
trust themselves to remain firm in the face of tempta- 
tion (whatever that temptation may be), they will not 
be in a position to inspire confidence in others. No 
boy or girl who has had the nature of their wrong- 
doing explained to them can recontinue the practice 
without a feeling of shame, of secrecy, and of loss of 
self-respect. It is here that the demoralising effects of 
vicious practices are so poignant. 

" Man who man would be, 
Must rule the empire of himself ; in it 
Must be supreme, establishing his throne 
On vanquished will, quelling the anarchy 
Of hopes and fears, being himself alone." 1 

It will be obvious that if there be antagonism between 
the environmental influence of school and home life, 
progress towards self -discipline will be subject to 
fluctuation. Perfect harmony in aim will be of inestim- 
able effect in securing that children achieve self- 
discipline. Regular hours of rising and sleeping, regu- 
larity in meals, plain, nutritious food, subservience of 
the individual in the interests of communal life, are the 
conditions of boarding-school experience. How soon 
will their effect be eradicated if the holidays are one 
.sequence of irregularity — late hours, morn and night, 
rich food, pampering and spoiling, " because they are 
home for the holidays," and so on ? 

That the school may play a most important part in 
this aspect of moral training is undeniable. At the same 
time, it is inadvisable for one to do more than indicate 
1 Shelley, Sonnet, " Political Greatness." 
12 



178 ETHICAL TRAINING 

in general lines how such training should proceed, and 
what its inspiration should be, for obviously, so much 
depends upon the personality of the teacher and upon 
the spirit of relationship between teacher and class : a 
device which may be admirable in every way and 
accompanied by great success, when employed by one 
teacher, would be unusable by another, who would 
probably evolve quite different, though equally effective, 
lines of appeal. But one may say that no boy or girl 
should be allowed to be a prefect unless, with the con- 
fidential relation that should exist between Principal and 
prefect-elect, the Principal is certain that his or her 
influence, in maintaining sex integrity, will be secured 
on right lines by his or her own behaviour and attitude 
towards these matters. 

Of the religious appeal, I propose to say but little, 
not because in any way its value is to be depreciated, 
but because religion is so much a personal matter that 
any attempt to deal with it in extenso would be liable 
to offend the sensitiveness of those whose religious 
doctrine and ideals were different from those pervading 
the disquisition. One may, however, say that, to the 
budding sense of religion which is finding its home 
in the adolescent mind and soul, " to teach the mighty 
lesson, Self-control," the religious appeal will come with 
inestimable force, and it may serve as a magnificent 
lever to 

* . lift the great Sex Passion from the darkness and the dust, 
And enshrine it on the altar of the soul." 

" Religion knows this dark world well enough," says 
Foerster ; x " but it does not throw open the gates of 

1 Marriage and the Sex Problem, p. 126. 



ETHICAL TRAINING 179 

Hades ; it pours in purifying, harmonising, calming 
thoughts and forces." 

The adolescent mind, however, is particularly liable 
to succumb to emotionalism; and later, when the 
emotional phase passes, is liable to react : then 
scepticism creeps in. Any religious appeal, therefore, 
should be made on thoroughly rational lines of digni- 
fied thought : sentimentalism, whether it appear in 
religious teaching or otherwise, is not only evanescent 
in effectiveness but harmful in effect. 

The establishment of self-discipline is one aspect 
only, of ethical training in regard to sex. Let us turn 
now to the question of mental hygiene. Imagination, 
" which has been called the noblest attribute of man," 
has its hygienic uses, which no one who has the welfare 
of childhood or youth at heart can afford to neglect. 
The brain without imagination, as Sir James Crichton- 
Browne points out, 1 is like a country without roads and 
railroads, in which locomotion is laborious and slow. 
Welton says, " The whole progress of the human race 
has been due to its imagining of better things and its 
efforts to make those imaginings real." 2 The cult of 
the imagination is a responsible factor in mental 
hygiene : of great importance is its tremendous 
recuperative value to the jaded or narrowly-environed 
mentality, which seeks rapaciously for refreshment. 
Present-day conditions of labour, narrowing down the 
activities to one monotonous task as they do, increase 
the demand for mental recuperation : hence we find 

1 " Hygienic Uses of the Imagination," Brit. Med. Journal, August 
1889. 

2 Quoted from Sandiford, Physical and Mental Development oj 
School Children, p. 259 et seq. 



180 ETHICAL TRAINING 

the rage for picture-palaces, novel-reading, theatre- 
going, and such pleasures as wandering along the gas- 
lighted streets and in the markets can afford. For the 
poorer class or badly-paid workers, only cheap enter- 
tainments and means of relaxation are possible, and 
unfortunately these cheap entertainments are generally 
of a deteriorating character, or at any rate liable to 
create no beneficial impression. " Penny dreadfuls " 
form the mental relaxation of the errand-boy, and 
dramatised " penny dreadfuls " the gist of the " picture 
palace " performance. The demand for mental re- 
cuperation is instinctive and healthy, a natural reaction 
to monotonous employment, but we need a highly 
cultivated social consciousness which shall lead to the 
supply of uplifting or, at any rate, non-deteriorating 
means of enjoyment within the resources of the poor — 
coupled with a system of education which shall aim at 
creating that mental desire which shall be unsatisfied 
with the low type of attractions which is at present 
so greatly available. A quick, vivid imagination is 
priceless, but just in proportion to its value, is it 
capable of being abused and degraded. Nowhere is 
that more evident than in novels. Facts concerning 
the sad things of life, social evils, pass through the 
brain of a Dickens or a Scott, says Sir James Crichton- 
Browne, and become purified and educative : through 
the brain of a Zola, pernicious and infective as with 
deadly moral plague. The value of an ideal is in- 
estimable ; a healthily stimulated imagination places 
high up in the mists of the future a goal towards 
which we climb : be it, then, the task of the educator 
to help the adolescent to " hitch his wagon to a 
star." 



ETHICAL TRAINING 181 

There are, of course, certain possible difficulties which 
may present themselves to the mind. Mrs. Mumford x 
points out how children of a highly imaginative type 
may tend to allow dreaming of things done to take 
place of actual doing, and also that children with quick 
imaginative flight from one subject to another — 
probably connectedly enough in the child's conception 
— are liable to leave things unfinished. These are two 
ethical aspects of the question which must be faced by 
elders and circumvented, as far as possible, without 
in any way inhibiting the imaginative process. * Day- 
dreaming ' in neurotic children is another condition of 
imagination which should be discouraged; for, as has 
already been pointed out in an earlier chapter, such a 
habit often presages morbidity of thought. It is well 
to encourage constructive imagination along lines of 
practical accomplishment (e.g. devising how to build 
an outdoor house for animal pets, or how to arrange a 
garden) in children of this type, to provide plenty of 
scope for activity, and to discourage monotonous, 
easily-accomplished employment. 

The right exercise of the imagination has, then, great 
hygienic use in maintaining a healthy mental condition 
and in advancing the cult of the ideal. A further aid 
towards mental hygiene will be to clear the mental 
atmosphere of fog : not to allow any foolish prejudice 
to obscure the real aim of ethical training. The fact 
of evil has to be faced : our girls and boys have to be 
safeguarded from social risks : security lies in knowledge 
and in aspiration. Professor Earl Barnes points out 
that in any attempt at sex education we should not 
ignore the fact of the pleasures of sex. It is precisely 

1 Dawn of Character, chap, i v. 



182 ETHICAL TRAINING 

in connection with selfish gratification of the pleasures 
of sex that so much ill-happening pervades society. 
Literature, History, Bible-reading, offer us their treasure- 
trove of inspiring example — heroism, strength, and 
nobility of character, of integrity, of unselfish devotion 
to a cause, of chivalry, of womanliness and of manliness. 
George Eliot gives us some of the best studies of adol- 
escents, the doings and thoughts of whom are essentially 
comprehensible to boys and girls who have passed or 
who are passing through the same stage in life's journey. 
Boys may aspire to be like rough John de Brent, in the 
Lady of the Lake. Young Ellen, timid and shrinking, 
puts her fear from her and crosses the courtyard to visit 
her father in his dungeon. The men in the courtyard 
leer at her girlishness. John de Brent leaps forward 
in impulsive chivalry to protect her from their rudeness. 
There is something, too, in every manly boy that revolts 
at once against such conduct as young Steerforth shows 
towards Little Emily in David Copper field, and a story 
like this may be made an opportunity of explaining to 
girls the possible sad results of yielding, in unwise 
generosity, to a man's solicitations. This is one of the 
instances of a social evil which, as Sir James Crichton- 
Browne says, passes through the brain of a Dickens 
and comes out purified and educative. 

See, again, how the story of Hetty Sorrel's betrayal 
by Arthur Donnithorne serves to illuminate. She, in 
her despair, is led to murder her child, and in her turn 
is sentenced to suffer the death penalty. Selfish pursuit 
of pleasure on his part, thoughtlessness in its gratifica- 
tion, bring in their train a terrible grief and regret. 
" God knows I'd give my life if I could undo it." 
" There's a sort of damage that can't be made up for," 



ETHICAL TRAINING 183 

says Adam Bede. How much may be made out of 
Pendennis ! The mother prays for her boy, Arthur, 
"as mothers only know how to plead," when he goes 
to college, that he may pass through the trials of his 
new life without flaw. Her terrible grief comes when 
she learns that the boy she prayed for so earnestly has 
degenerated into loose ways in London. 

These are just a few examples of the way in which 
literature x may help us in connection with education 
for life's great purpose, if only elders, teachers, or parents 
will be alert enough to recognise opportunities and 
courageous enough to take them. The experience of 
the headmistress of a girls' school should help others to 
take their courage in both hands. I quote from her 
letter : 

" The Scripture syllabus included 2 Samuel. The 
girls (average age, 16 to 17) read in advance the chapters 
to be discussed, sometimes the whole book, before 
lessons are given on it. The work set for the week was 
chapters xi.-xiv. I was quite aware of the difficulty of 
chapter xiii., but knew that certainly more attention 
would be paid to it if I said, ' Omit chapter xiii.' In 
my lesson I only referred to the murder of Amnon by 
Absalom as a cause for the flight of Absalom. But 
afterwards one of the prefects — and perhaps one of the 
nicest girls I have ever had in the school — came to me 
and said, ' The girls are saying that 2 Samuel is a horrid 
book, and ought not to be read. I am the eldest of a 
large family, and know more than most of them, perhaps, 

1 The National Home Reading Union, Surrey House, Embank- 
ment, W.C., invites affiliation of Reading Circles, home, social, and 
school. And in this way, boys and girls may be put in touch with 
good, stimulating, and bright books. 



184 ETHICAL TRAINING 

but I do not feel I can speak to them about this, and 
I did not think you would like them to be " running 
down " the Bible. Will you speak to them ? 9 So I 
went up to them and told them that I had heard they 
had difficulties about this chapter, that, of course, I was 
aware of its contents, and had considered what best to 
do ; and I asked them what would have happened had I 
said, ' You can omit chapter xni.' They smiled. Then I 
asked which of them did not understand what happened. 
All understood except two. So I told them very 
briefly what it meant. I said, ' Amnon treated his 
sister as if she were his Y^fe.' Then they all understood. 
I then said a few words to them to the effect that in the 
Bible the bad deeds were recorded as well as the good ; 
that they were no longer children, and, as the results 
showed, they knew the principal facts about the origin 
of life. Evil existed, and had to be faced — and so on. 
I asked them to ask their mothers for information on 
any point they did not understand in the connection, 
and told them that I thought they were old enough, 
and that their mothers would probably think so too, 
to be informed rightly about these facts. 

11 They were perfectly natural and simple about it. 
I heard from the prefect later that nothing further 
had been said, and that no discussion had taken place 
among themselves afterwards about these matters.' ' 

There is much to be said in favour of reading aloud 
as a method of training in self-confidence and in accom- 
plishment. Well -chosen fiction would give many 
chances of informing girls and boys on social problems. 
They would grasp facts, and weigh considerations much 
more wholesomely in this way, than if they read the 
.same passages alone, for then they tend to ponder 



ETHICAL TRAINING 185 

more or less morbidly over things they fail to under- 
stand, or which they see in wrong proportion. 

Nor is one confined to novel-fiction for choice. The 
poem may in some measure repay the indebtedness of 
the poet to the Great Giver of Genius when it raises 
a soul to a higher plane of conduct, or illumines a 
life with a spark of the ideal, or causes one heart- 
throb of desire for the perfect in thought and deed. 
A thought-garden illimitable to explore, manifold and 
various in its yield of seed. But manifold and various 
also are the growing-grounds, some stony, some rich, 
some receptive, some exclusive — each thought may 
find one home in which to rest, to root, and grow. The 
gentle and simple exaltation of the love-theme running 
through " An English Madonna " 1 may find a root- 
hold where the magnificent portrayal of an ideal of 
love-relationship in Paradise Lost may fail to implant 
itself ; the lesson of chivalry and nobility in the " Idylls 
of the King," the quiet endurance and heroism of mother- 
hood in " Cain," 2 will find a joyous reception in many 
minds. Milton's "Comus" shows howman's lower nature 
will struggle to assert itself. Many of the simple poems 
for children even carry a little message of beauty, and 
may stir the first gentle promptings towards the ideal. 
The thoughts may be uplifted, the desires hallowed, 
effort directed towards fulfilment of high aim ; a few 
lines, pregnant with inspirative power, may fasten 
themselves in the memory, there to abide ever ready 
to inspire and to colour the whole life-theme. 

Enlightening ignorance, clearing the mental atmo- 

1 James Hinton ; see also Love's Offering, poems by the same 
poet. 

* Songs of Dreams, by Ethel Clifford, 



186 ETHICAL TEAINING 

sphere of fog, inculcating an ideal of love and marriage, 
presenting the facts of sex in a' true and reverent light, 
we shall proceed far towards cultivating an attitude of 
mind which shall find loose conversation or porno- 
graphic literature repulsive, not attractive— yet another 
aim in mental hygiene. 

Mr. C. B. Andrews, in his book, Adolescent Education, 
draws attention to the value of the swimming-bath as 
an aid towards moral education, for the daily swim 
not only provides a wholesome outlet for mental energy, 
and makes for the attainment of self-confidence, but, 
carried out under conditions which admit of no develop- 
ment of false modesty, is excellent in its moral influence. 

There are still other important aspects of ethical 
training to consider ; for, ideally, we would wish that 
adolescents, understanding sex in itself and in relation 
to society, not only learn to understand themselves and 
to control their passions, but that their conduct should 
be moulded consciously by their own aspiration, and 
unconsciously by the positive, directive force of their 
mental and spiritual environment, towards the highest 
possibilities of sex. For it is quite possible, of course, 
to understand sex and sex matters, to recognise and 
circumvent critical situations, to be strong enough to 
resist any temptation that one did not wish to accept, 
and yet to fall considerably short of the ideal. And, 
though in successful sex education, we may feel glad 
to have secured that boys and girls are so equipped with 
knowledge and so developed in will-power that they will 
lead chaste lives, secured from social risks, we must 
recognise that our sex education will be worthier the 
name if it succeeds in inculcating a reserve, borne of 
a high ideal of the love-relationship and of the out* 



ETHICAL TRAINING 187 

come of the love-relationship — parenthood. Let the girl 
know within herself that she could yield to the caresses 
and the love of no man but him whose spirit will leap 
out to meet hers, and whose ideal is of the same in- 
trinsic purity as her own. Let the boy know within 
himself that motherhood is the greatest honour to which 
a woman may attain, and that marriage means some- 
thing more than passion, that love, comradeship, in- 
tellectual and spiritual sympathy all form the bond 
which unite man and woman in the happiest lifelong 
union ; and knowing these things, let him build up for 
himself, in all humility, an ideal of what he, himself, 
should be, in order that he should be fit to offer himself 
to her whose ideal is attuned to vibrate in harmony 
with his own. Let him so realise what maternity 
means to a woman that when the inevitable conflict 
between the two purposive factors in marriage arrives, 
he will be ready to sacrifice the self-gratifying on the 
altar of the altruistic. 1 

The path of progress is rarely easy ; by difficult steps 
and slow has man climbed the evolutionary tree, and 
with his evolved gifts of reason and of choice, he may 
climb still higher, though the difficulty is by no means 
lessened. Monogamous marriage of lifelong duration is 
the highest form of union; the very discipline it involves, 
both in its highest preparation, pre-marital chastity, and 
in its well-regulated pursuance, exerts a psychological 
influence which makes for the uplift of mankind — and, 

1 This is a greatly important point in connection with the training 
of youths. Many married men pride themselves on their chastity, 
but in their selfishness and misunderstanding obtain the price of 
the chastity in absolute in consideration of their wives. Marriage 
calls for restraint and mutual regard. 



188 ETHICAL TRAINING 

though numerically it tends to restrict the increase of 
the race, qualitatively it is a great asset in racial better- 
ment, for the provision it makes, through communion of 
body and spirit, through constant action and reaction of 
two psyches one upon the other, bearing one another's 
burdens and sharing joys, through the constant self- 
expression it allows in a sympathetic atmosphere — 
through all these conditions it tends to bring men and 
women to the perfect happiness, and so to fit them 
better for the consummation of love — parenthood. 
And because it involves such great responsibility, 
because in its supremest essence it presents the highest 
possibility of happiness and fulfilment of purpose, it 
should not be rushed into thoughtlessly nor irresponsibly, 
and within the bond, the egoistic joys of sex should 
subserve, and not endanger the altruistic joys of parent- 
hood. " No part of the art of living is more important 
for youth than developing in one's self the knowledge 
of a predestined fellowship which permits of waiting. 
People curse the hazards which separate lovers. But it 
is less the hazards which separate than those which 
unite at the wrong time, that ought to be cursed." l 

Stimulated into life by the light of the ideal — the 
ideal of marriage and reverence for maternity — self- 
respect and other-sex respect will blossom forth, and 
from the blossom will come the fruit — sex integrity — 
and each will be content to wait. 

" Somewhere there waited, in this world of ours, 
For one lone soul, another lonely soul, 
Each chasing each through all the weary hours, 
And meeting strangely at one sudden goal, 
Then blend they, like green leaves with golden flowers, 
Into one beautiful and perfect whole." 2 

1 Ellen Key, Love and Marriage. a Edwin Arnold. 



ETHICAL TRAINING 189 

The question of ethical training presents many diffi- 
culties : some children and adolescents are much more 
responsive than others ; some, whom we would help, 
are at the mercy of a wholly antagonistic environ- 
ment ; some are perhaps so much immersed in unhealthy 
social conditions that help seems well-nigh impossible. 
Witness the difficulty which faced a teacher in an 
elementary school, a teacher whose whole desire was to 
help her girls forward. On inquiring from a girl as to 
the reason for her absence from school during the pre- 
ceding week, she received the reply, " Please, miss, 
mother had a baby and I had to help at home." And 
the teacher knew that the girl's father had died two 
years previously, and that the mother was not married 
again ! Or take again the case of children whose parents 
are divorced : how far can such children realise an 
ideal of marriage when their own parents have failed 
to make anything of it save a wreck ? 

The fact of evil has to be faced : we must not evade 
it. The same difficulties confront him who would 
instil the doctrine of temperance into the minds of chil- 
dren whose parents are habitually drunken. To raise 
up an ideal, in such case, seems either impossible or, 
if successful, to bring in its train, disrespect of parents. 
It is in meeting such difficulties as these that the whole 
ingenuity and resource of the teacher is called into 
action, to show what the ideal may be, but that many 
people have never had the advantage of having the 
ideal raised before them, and are to be pitied in their 
misfortune when calamity overtakes them and they fall 
to low grades of conduct — and, again, that many may fail 
to achieve where others succeed. Some men are honest 
because they have had no temptation to steal : they 



190 ETHICAL TRAINING 

are to be congratulated on their freedom from tempta- 
tion. Some men are honest because they have striven 
against and vanquished the foe, temptation : they are 
to be admired and respected. Some men are dishonest 
because temptation has been too strong for them in 
their special circumstances or in their weakness of will 
to overcome : these are to be pitied, and not reviled. 
Evil-doing brings its inevitable recompense, and that is 
punishment enough. So, perhaps, he who would teach 
and inspire, with warm-hearted insight and resourceful- 
ness will be able to weave into his teaching an exalted 
idea of the possible, and a broad-mindedness which 
shall understand, without embitterment, the failure. 



CHAPTER IX 

Education for Parenthood 

When we have done our utmost in the way of instructing 
youthhood in normal sex phenomena, and our utmost 
to safeguard youth from the pitfalls and risks of social 
life, and when we have sought diligently to lead the 
youthful idea into pursuit of the ideal and noble in 
conduct, there still remains a field of labour for us — 
and that the ultimate goal of sex education — education 
for parenthood. It is not for parents or for teachers 
to say which boys and girls shall ultimately enter into 
the privilege of marriage and parenthood — that, in time, 
each shall decide for himself. But it is for parents and 
teachers, and all of those who may be in any wayrespons- 
ible for the care of youth, to realise that each boy and 
each girl is a potential parent, that each may be called 
into the joy and responsibility of parenthood, and that 
therefore each is entitled to some instruction and guid- 
ance in regard to their highest possible responsibilities. 

Man cannot regard himself in isolation ; he bears a 
relation to society, and therefore has a duty towards 
society ; he is responsible for the race, and therefore 
has a duty towards the race. His conception of personal 
conduct and ideal will, therefore, be incomplete, and, 
moreover, unworthy if it fails to recognise his obligations 

to society and towards the race. Sex may be considered 

i 9 i 



192 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 

a personal matter, but it subserves reproduction, which 
is a social affair. 

Education for parenthood is by no means the difficult 
task it may have seemed to be some years ago, for bio- 
logic and medical science has made great strides during 
the last fourteen years, and has placed before us many 
facts and many possibilities which may give us a basis for 
education for parenthood. The rediscovery at the end of 
the nineteenth century of Mendel's work on hybridisation 
opened up a whole new field of research in heredity, and 
we owe a debt of gratitude to the geneticists, not only for 
the information they are gradually finding themselves able 
to place before the public, in regard to the transmissibility 
of traits, but for enlightening a wilderness of shade and 
showing us in some degree the right paths to take, but, 
up to the present, in greater degree, the paths to avoid. 
Every organism comes under the dominion and influence 
of three factors : Heredity, by which it is endowed with 
its gifts — good, bad, indifferent — from its bears and for- 
bears ; Environment, which may foster, encourage, or in- 
hibit the development of gifts heredity bestows ; Function 
(which by Professor J. Arthur Thomson is regarded as a 
separate influential factor, though by some authorities as 
part of the environmental factor), by which many of the 
gifts may be intensified in expressiveness or diminished 
in power, even to a negligible residuum. According to 
the way in which a particular group of organisms reacts 
under these three factors, so the type of the group tends 
towards betterment or impairment. 

Man, we believe, has attained his position in the 
organic world by a process of evolution, by a gradual 
accumulation and perpetuation of traits which have 
fitted him best to meet the exigencies of his environ- 



EDUCATION FOE PARENTHOOD 193 

ment. We believe, too, that evolution is still in progress, 
and we hope that our descendants will be better in every 
way than we ourselves. In the plane of mental life 
it is that man has far outstripped the animals. With 
his evolved power of reasoning, with his capacity 
for exercising intelligent choice, he may do much to 
quicken the speed of man's eyolution. And to do this, 
he must study the factors under which his present 
position has been obtained, and under which progress 
may still be made towards racial betterment. 

Eugenics is a science which has for its object " the 
study of agencies under social control which may 
improve or impair the racial qualities of future genera- 
tions, either physically or mentally/' and out of the 
knowledge that this study gives us, out of the hope 
which evolution itself bids us have, emerges the eugenic 
ideal — an ideal of parenthood and race culture, an ideal 
which strengthens our hope and desire that men and 
women may be nobler and finer — free from physical 
and mental weakness, free from the taint of wrong- 
doing and from the dominion of vice. 

The first step towards the approach of the ideal is 
to find out the nature of the forces keeping us away from 
it. What, at present, is ' keeping us back ? And 
having discovered something of this, what may we do 
to go forward ? These are the questions the eugenists 
are attempting to answer— and in answering them, to 
determine how far we may proceed on constructive 
lines to help on the progress of the race, and how 
far we may proceed on preventive lines. The characters 
and attributes of every individual are due to the three 
factors : those which he inherited from his parents, 
grandparents, and even earlier progenitors — this is 
13 



194 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 

spoken of as ' nature ' ; those which are due to his 
reaction to environment and to function — these two 
comprise ' nurture,' which includes every influence — 
physical, mental, social, spiritual — under which the 
organism comes from the moment of conception. The 
sperm and the egg bring with them the inherited attri- 
butes ; they fuse. A new life begins, and thereafter is 
under the influence of nurture. 

Mendel's work, and the work of those who are follow- 
ing after Mendel, makes quite clear to us that certain 
parental characters are transmitted to their offspring, 
that many of these characters may be wholly or partially 
obscured in evidence, but that they remain latent but 
potential, that they may be transmitted for several 
generations still latent but potential — and that when 
of two parents, both contain this recessive factor in a 
latent condition, there is every likelihood of its appearing 
in the active form in some of their children. 

Another great truth that we have learnt from Mendel's 
and subsequent work is that by a new combination of 
factors it is possible to obtain new types. 

Human nature and human characteristics are, how- 
ever, of such great complexity — each trait may be due 
to the presence or absence of not one, but many factors — 
that definite knowledge which may help us towards the 
upbuilding of the human type is very slow and difficult 
to obtain. Then, also, human nature does not lend itself 
to experiment — we must, for the main, rely upon 
investigation of pedigrees and family histories in order 
to find out which traits are transmitted from one genera- 
tion to another, and which of them tend to be obscured 
for one or more generations, and ultimately to crop up. 
Naturally most of the information which we have at the 



EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 195 

present time relates to conspicuous characters which are 
for the most part abnormalities — albinism, certain eye 
diseases, certain forms of mental deficiency seem to be 
transmitted in Mendelian ratio, a certain form of deaf- 
mutism, colour-blindness, and so on. Some of these, 
e.g. colour-blindness, seem to be submitted to a curious 
hereditary route : the male members of a family afflicted 
with this abnormality show the condition, but it is 
transmitted only by their daughters, who are them- 
selves apparently normal, but evidently possess the 
factor for colour-blindness recessively, for they in turn 
transmit it to their sons, who are colour-blind. Briefly, 
the sons of colour-blind men are normal, the daughters 
of colour-blind men are apparently normal, but may have 
colour-blind sons. 

Eye-colour seems to be transmitted according to 
laws of Mendelian inheritance — ' blueness ' being re- 
cessive to * brownness,' that is, two parents of pure 
blue-eyed type will only have blue-eyed children, but 
if one of the parents be brown-eyed and the other blue, 
the eye-colour of the children will vary, according to the 
particular type of ' brownness ' (brown eye-colour is a 
complex condition) which constitutes the eye-colour 
of the brown-eyed parent. Major Hurst is of the 
opinion, based upon his researches, that the musical 
sense passes from one generation to another as a 
Mendelian recessive, and there seems certain indication 
that skin colour, powers of work and invention, possible 
duration of life, liability to certain diseases, and some 
others of the many features by which people differ 
from one another are determined at the moment of con- 
ception — that is to say, are definitely hereditary factors. 

However, up to the present, we have insufficient 



196 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 

knowledge of the genetics of human characteristics to 
justify us in any attempt to improve the race by organ- 
ised marriage, even if social opinion would allow it. 
Most of the knowledge we have relates to the inheritance 
of weaknesses or abnormalities. This knowledge is 
invaluable, for it shows us how we may aid in the re- 
generation of the race by avoiding the production of 
weakened or degenerate types. 

The feeble-minded are a most important part of the 
problem. Not only is feeble-mindedness one of those 
traits which pass from one generation to another, but 
feeble-minded people tend to marry among themselves, 
and> through the natural extravagance and uncon- 
trolledness of their disposition have, as a rule, very 
large families. 

Feeble-mindedness is so inextricably interwoven with 
conditions of vagrancy, destitution, criminality, in- 
ebriety, and other forms of degeneration that its 
extensiveness and perpetuity tend to be an extreme 
racial peril. Professor Karl Pearson has shown that the 
average number of offspring among the degenerates of 
London is 7. Dr. TredgoM has called attention 
to an observation on similar lines; he found among 
43 couples of the unthrifty — ' parasitic ' — working class 
an average of 74 per family, while among 91 families 
of the thrifty working-class type the average was 3*7 
per family, i.e. exactly half of the number in the 
1 parasitic ' working-class family. Sidney Webb has 
found that the number of children born to the intel- 
lectual section of the community works out at 1*5 per 
head. These results, together with those of other 
investigators, go to show that, although at the present 
time the degenerates are in the minority of the popula- 



EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 197 

tion, their rate of increase as compared with that 
of the normal part of the population is a serious 
menace to racial security. In fact, Mr. Whetham has 
calculated that under present conditions and rate of 
increase, in three generations every 1000 members 
of the skilled worker and intellectual section of the 
community will be represented by 687 descendants, 
while every 1000 members of the degenerate and feeble- 
minded type will be represented by 3600 descendants. 
Happily, in England, the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 
now provides for the care and detention in institutions 
of some of these feeble-minded persons, so that the 
future of the race will be in some proportion safeguarded. 
With regard to the appearance of feeble-mindedness 
in an individual, heredity and environment both play 
a part in causation, though heredity is apparently the 
greater factor. Some forms of mental deficiency act as 
Mendelian recessives : hence the children of a mentally 
defective and a normal person may be all apparently 
normal, but capable of transmitting their mental 
defect ; and two apparently normal parents (' impure 
dominants ') of a mentally defective stock may have 
some mental defectives among their children. The 
children of two mentally defective people, provided the 
mental deficiency is of the same type in each parent, are 
always defective. Then, again, there seems to be a very 
definite relation between epilepsy and feeble-minded- 
ness — the children of the epileptic often evidencing 
feeble-mindedness, and vice versa. And, again, the 
children of the syphilitic parent and of the inebriate 
parent are frequently tainted with the parental weakness 
manifesting itself in another form — mental deficiency. 
Some forms of epilepsy are due to irritation of the brain 



198 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 

surface, or some similar condition ; these are regarded 
as ' acquired,' and are not heritable, but other forms are 
of genetic origin, and are apparently inherited accord- 
ing to the Mendelian law. 

The problems of insanity and of tuberculosis always 
interest the inquirer into human heredity, and at the 
present stage of knowledge and information available, 
it seems that only the most cautious statement upon 
either is possible. With regard to insanity, its causation 
may be very complex, so that no single pronouncement 
upon its heritableness may be justly made. What 
may be inherited in certain types is a tendency towards 
insanity, the development of the condition being entirely 
due to environmental encouragement. In the case of 
tuberculosis, the tubercle bacillus, though it may be 
present in the mother, only with the greatest rarity 
finds its way through the placenta * — so that we may say 
tuberculosis is not transmissible. 2 But here, again, a 
liability to succumb to infection is thought to be in- 
herited : hence the children of tuberculous parents 
should be removed from possibility of infection, and be 
fortified against their susceptibility in every way by 
careful, protective supervision. 3 

Before turning our thoughts to any practical policy 
of education for parenthood, we must faithfully con- 
sider other aspects of the question of national culture, 
many of which are, to say the least, closely allied to the 
more definitely eugenic problems. 

1 Professor von Pirquet of Vienna emphasises the fact that pre- 
natal infection is very rare ; all such cases in his experience die 
(Royal Institute of Public Health Congress, July 1914). 

2 See forward, p. 202 seq., for tuberculosis as a factor in racial 
deterioration. 

3 See footnote to p. 201. 



EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 199 

We know that incompetent motherhood is largely re- 
sponsible for the high death-rate of children : maternity 
in the human race does not of itself, although it may 
serve to awaken certain instinctive efforts, bring with it 
knowledge of the needs and care of infant life. Many 
mothers-to-be are absolutely ignorant of the fact that 
a mother may influence her unborn babe, and that the 
care of the baby should begin nine months before the 
baby comes out into the world. More than that, great 
ignorance prevails in regard to what Dr. Saleeby calls 
the ' racial poisons,' against the influence of which the 
race should be protected. 

The foremost of these is alcohol. From the social 
point of view alone, knowing as we do of the incalculable 
distress, poverty, lapses in conduct, suffering in body 
and in mind which inebriety brings in its train, we have 
every reason to advocate education in habits of modera- 
tion, and from the racial point of view the appeal is 
doubly reinforced. In two special ways may alcohol 
be regarded as a racial poison. First, it may actually 
damage the germ-cells x themselves, so that such germ- 
cells will lose much of their vital power, and will develop 
into weakly children with little power of resistance 
to disease and strain. Dr. Mjoen 2 concludes that the 
hurtfulness of chronic alcoholism upon the sexual 
glands is not to be denied, and that the stronger the 
alcohol customarily taken, the greater the injurious 
effect. Second, the lowered vitality of the offspring of 
alcoholic parents is still further lowered, after birth ; 
for the mother often, through her own or her parents' 
alcoholism, seems to become deficient in the power of 

1 Saleeby, Progress oj Eugenics, p. 231. 

2 Problems of Eugenics, vol. ii. p. 177. 



200 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 

producing milk ; and if she is able to supply milk for 
her baby, and at the same time takes alcohol in her 
diet, the presence of alcohol in the milk is evident soon 
after the dose. In addition to this, alcohol is one of 
the very few things which can make its- way through the 
placenta, so that an inebriate mother not only feeds 
her baby with alcohol-tainted milk after birth, 1 but 
before birth its stream of nourishment (the mother's 
blood-stream) is tainted. So that it is not surprising 
to find that there is a high death-rate among children 
of inebriate parents during the early years of life. 

The brunt of the strain caused by such malnutrition 
falls upon the nervous system, hence the children of 
alcoholic parentage frequently show signs of dullness 
and moral instability, and if there is any latent strain 
of mental or physical deficiency, 2 it is likely to make its 
appearance in active form. Alcoholism may thus, in 
some cases, be the cause of mental weakness breaking 
out, or in other cases the yielding to and the intensity 
of the craving may be the result of mental flaw. 

Consider, too, the less direct ways in which alcoholism 
may exercise a deleterious effect upon the race. The 
money that is spent on alcohol is frequently obtained 

1 Mothers frequently take stout and other alcoholic beverages 
during the period of nursing under the impression that it increases 
the milk supply. It does sometimes increase the bulk, but diminishes 
the nutrient qualities of the milk (Saleeby, Woman and Woman- 
hood, p. 370 et seq.). 

2 Dr. Mjoen gives an account of observations made in Norway. 
During the period 1816-1835 brandy was untaxed ; the proportion 
of feeble-minded increased over 100 per cent. When taxation 
compelled the bulk of the people to return to cheap beer, this pro- 
portion was greatly reduced. Dr. Mjoen says, " The enormous 
increase of idiots came and went with the brandy " (Problems of 
Eugenics, vol. ii. p. 179). 



EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 201 

at the expense of the children's food and clothes ; 
inebriate parents usually neglect their children and their 
homes ; and the irresponsible conduct of inebriate 
parents is frequently the cause of much suffering and 
even death by misadventure for the children, as the 
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children can 
affirm. 

Add to these facts the knowledge that drink plays 
so great a part in the problem* of crime, prostitution, 
and immorality, that our national drink bill is estimated 
at £160,000,000 a year, that the annual expenditure 
in the United Kingdom on poor relief, the upkeep of 
lunatic asylums, police, law administration, is about 
£48,000,000/ that much of this money could, if released 
from this direction, be diverted into streams greatly 
beneficial to the nation — education, relief of taxation, 
care of expectant motherhood, alleviation of social 
conditions, and so forth. There is every reason, there- 
fore, for some great effort at national training towards 
moderation and temperance reform, the solution of 
which problem lies not only in education but in the 
stimulation of a national consciousness to -tackle problems 
of social reform, of economics, and of housing. Many a 
man goes to the public-house because it is more cheerful 
than his home, and many a woman is driven to seek 
fictitious joy and exhilaration in alcohol as respite from 
a monotonous, poverty-stricken, work-wearied existence. 

Alcohol is the most widely diffused ' racial poison ' ; 
others, of a more restricted sphere of influence, are 
concerned chiefly with trades. Of these, lead-poisoning 
has a strongly detrimental effect upon the health of 

1 Major L. Darwin, " The Cost of Degeneracy," Eugenics Review, 
vol. v. No. 2. 



202 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 

the workers, and further than that, greatly damages 
their procreative power. So great is the harm done 
to the expectant mother and her child, and so peculiarly 
susceptible to lead-poisoning are women, that they are 
now excluded from the white lead trade. Lead is widely 
used in the process of glazing pottery, but it is possible 
to get a ' leadless ' glaze which is just as effective and 
does not involve the risk to the workers and their 
unborn children. Sir Thomas Oliver is of the opinion, 
based upon his valuable researches, that lead destroys 
the racial powers of both men and women, and that its 
effect upon women during expectant motherhood is 
responsible for great destruction of human life. 1 All 
during the months of expectant motherhood while a 
woman is working in a trade in which lead in some 
form or another is freely handled and used in large 
quantities, lead is circulating in the maternal blood- 
stream, injuring and poisoning the tissues of the develop- 
ing child. Hence an extremely high rate of infant 
mortality, still-births, and miscarriages is to be found 
in families whose parents are employed in lead industries. 
Other dangerous trades play great havoc with the health 
of the individual. The manufacture of arsenic, of rubber, 
the use of mercury in certain trades, each involves 
great risk to the health of the workers ; but it is in the 
lead trades that the danger to the offspring of the 
workers is greatest. 

To turn again to the question of tuberculosis, although 
the tubercle bacillus itself is not held to be transmitted, 
there is undoubtedly a tendency for tuberculosis to 
' run in families,' as we say — and this may be ascribed 
to three main causes : (1) that a tubercular subject 

1 See Diseases of OccujMtiori, by Sir Thomas Oliver. 



EDUCATION FOE PAEENTHOOD 203 

passes through a stage in the disease in which they are 
infective to others ; (2) that many environmental con- 
ditions, e.g. overcrowding, lack of sunlight, improper 
and insufficient feeding, alcoholism, influenza, lack of 
fresh air, tend to lower the resistance against infection ; 
(3) that the prenatal conditions of the child of a tuber- 
cular mother may be such as to cause its later resistance 
to infection to be lowered. It is probable, too, that the 
germ-cell tissue of a tubercular person may be weakened, 
so that the offspring are likely to begin life handicapped ; 
and, as already pointed out, the liability to succumb to 
infection may be inherited. Such children, exposed to 
the super-average infection which will obtain in a house- 
hold which includes an inmate in an infectious condi- 
tion, especially if their resistance is further lowered by 
detrimental nurtural conditions, are very likely to fall 
victims to the disease. Even in non-tubercular families, 
unhealthy environmental conditions are likely to 
lower resistance to disease, and such children or adults 
may acquire susceptibility. In regard to the feeding 
of children, at the Congress of the Eoyal Institute of 
Public Health, July 1914, Professor Delepine, Professor 
von Pirquet, and many other medical authorities 
emphasised the fact that abdominal tuberculosis in 
children is greatly due to infection through bad milk. 

It seems, therefore, that in the light of present know- 
ledge, the campaign against tuberculosis as a racial 
scourge can be greatly aided through social education ; 
for the prevention of tuberculosis lies largely with the 
people themselves. 1 

1 See Health and Disease, by W. L. Mackenzie, published by 
Williams & Norgate, for an able and simple discussion of the tuber- 
culosis problem. 



204 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 

The same principle applies to other infectious diseases 
which are greatly harmful to the race, and the prevention 
of which is largely a task for the people themselves to 
fulfil. The two most prevalent of these infectious ' social 
diseases * are gonococcus infection and syphilis. The 
4 social diseases/ as Dr. Helen Putnam calls them, 
include tuberculosis, syphilis, gonococcus infection, 
typhus (now practically extinct in our country, thanks 
to improvement in social conditions), the spread of 
all of which is largely due to our social practices. 
Gonococcus infection in its commonest form, gonorrhoea, 
is exceedingly prevalent, more so than syphilis ; the 
two together, though, are much more prevalent than 
tuberculosis. 1 So widespreading are they, and so harm- 
ful may their results be, particularly if they are not 
treated in the earliest stages, to the individual infected, 
and frequently to the children they may bear, that 
a Royal Commission to inquire into the means of pre- 
venting the spread of these diseases has been appointed, 
and is now conducting its inquiry. 

Gonorrhoea is an infected condition of the racial 
organs, and if the infection is not prevented from 
spreading, it may, particularly in women, make its 
way to adjacent organs of the body, causing severe 
complaints often necessitating very serious operations. 
A large proportion of the diseases to which women are 
particularly liable are due to gonococcus infection. 
In addition to this, the racial organs themselves are 

1 For an estimate of the prevalence of venereal disease see Dr. 
Douglas White's evidence before the Royal Commission (Ap- 
pendix to the First Report, Question 10,072 et seq.). Also 
The Problem of Nations t by A. Corbett-Smith, published by John 
Bale, Sons, & Danieilson. Also R. W. Johnstone's Government 
. Report on Venereal Diseases. 



EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 205 

frequently deprived of their generative power, so that 
the man or woman so diseased is incapable of having 
children ; in fact, this is one of the causes of childless 
marriages, or sometimes it may be that there is one 
child only to the marriage, and no more. 

Should a little girl become infected, the harm done to 
her is frequently very serious ; the racial organs are very 
likely to be irretrievably damaged. In some cases in- 
flammatory conditions of the joints arise, which may lead 
to permanent crippling, this, however, being more fre- 
quent in men, generally about three weeks after infection. 

Should the infection be transferred to the eyes, disease 
and even blindness very frequently results. A large 
percentage of cases of infantile blindness are due to 
infection of the baby's eyes by this disease. 1 Now, 
however, one of the first services to be performed for a 
newly-born baby is that its eyes must be bathed with dis- 
infectant solution, to prevent the calamity of blindness. 

Syphilis, the other of the two infectious diseases 
which play so great a part in the suffering of 
humanity, though less prevalent than gonococcus 
infection (yet still very prevalent), is more far-reaching 
in its effects. For, in a few weeks, if not prevented 
by treatment, the infection makes its way from the 
point of inoculation into the blood-stream, and is so 
carried round the body, revealing itself generally in 
characteristic skin eruptions and mucous patches in 
the throat and elsewhere, which are the visible signs 
of general infection ; the disease may finally fix itself 
in any part of the body or nervous system. 

1 According to evidence given before the Royal Commission, 
about half of all cases, of children's blindness is due to gonococcus 
infection and about half of the remainder of cases to syphilis. 



206 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 

It is during this period, which varies greatly in length 
of duration (if untreated, from two to five years, or even 
more), that the disease is most easily communicated 
from one person to another, either directly by contact 
(as in sexual intercourse or even by a lass) or indirectly 
by drinking-vessels, towels, table utensils, pipes, etc., 
which may have been used by a syphilitic person. 
After this period of infectivity, the disease, if not yet 
properly treated, passes into a stage which, though 
non-infective, still produces further serious effects on 
the patient himself — no single organ of the body seems 
to be free from the possibility of attack ; the nervous 
system is specially liable to damage at this period ; 
syphilis indeed, is now definitely recognised as the 
cause of general paralysis of the insane, 1 and locomotor 
ataxy, as well as most cases of aneurysm. 

The seriousness of syphilis as a racial scourge, great 
as it is, does not, however, stop short at the individual 
infected. It seriously impairs his or her chance of 
having a healthy family. The children of a syphilitic 
parent may die before birth. Many of them, if they 
do live beyond early childhood, are weakly, liable to 
fall an easy prey to disease ; certain bodily malforma- 
tions and mental weaknesses may become evident, 
certain forms of deafness may develop, especially 
about the age of puberty. 2 If such children live to 
become parents, they may even in some cases transmit 
their disease, though this transmission to the third 
generation is very rare. 

This is just a very short outline of the ' social diseases.' 
Of the dangers attendant upon the spread of tubercu- 

1 Proceedings of Royal Society oj Medicine, July 1912. 

2 Still Diseases oj Childhood. 



EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 207 

losis the people are coming to be aware (thanks to the 
propaganda work done as a result of the findings of 
Government and medical inquiries), and no doubt 
when the findings of the Royal Commission are pub- 
lished, an effective campaign against the other two 
social diseases will be inaugurated. In the meantime, 
the knowledge we have at hand is sufficient to show us 
the very great need for general information making its 
way abroad among the people, that they may know 
how these diseases are spread, and that they may realise 
how they may be combated, for the successful preventive 
campaign lies with the people themselves. 

One is bound to recognise that the great agent for 
the spread of gonorrhoea and syphilis is prostitution ; 
at the same time, one must also realise that the infection 
is frequently passed on to innocent persons, chiefly 
women, who may thus be involved in suffering them- 
selves, and may ignorantly pass the infection to others. 
The syphilis germ may find its way into the body through 
any cut, or abrasion, however slight, or even through the 
skin glands themselves x ; since the mouth and throat 
are frequently affected, kissing may be a means of 
transmission of the disease from one person to another, 
as may also drinking-vessels, pipes, barbers' utensils, 
etc., which have been used by a syphilitic person in an 
infectious condition. 

Hence it is most important that our young people 
should be safeguarded against social risks in this way ; 
that they should form such habits of reserve as shall 
protect them, and that they should develop such a 
conception of their personal responsibility that they 
will not willingly expose themselves to infection at all, 

1 Marshall. Syphilology and Venereal Diseases, 



208 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 

and that if they should be so unfortunate as to contract 
disease they should regard it" as a deep obligation to 
seek immediate treatment from qualified medical 
source, not from chemists or quacks, for under proper 
medical treatment both diseases may be cured with 
comparative ease if taken in the earliest stages. 

The question of how and when adolescents should be 
informed on these matters will be dealt with in a later 
chapter. For our present consideration, it is enough 
to point out that an ideal of parenthood includes the 
obligation to maintain health in every possible way. 

The doctrine of heredity may at first seem to be 
discouragingly fatalistic, holding, as it does, that unit 
characters persist for generation after generation. 
But there is another aspect of the case, and that is the 
environmental influence. Ordinary natural inheritance 
requires appropriate nurture for its development, that 
is, the organism must be subjected to the right stimuli 
— stimuli of environing circumstance and of function. 
This nurtural factor we have under control. We are 
accustomed to associate a certain type of person with 
a certain type of dwelling-ground ; but the type of 
person and of environment may be at once mutually 
reactive. The conditions of slum life help to produce 
the slum-dweller ; and the type of person who becomes 
a permanent dweller in the slums, making no attempt 
to extricate himself, is the type that helps to produce 
the slums. 

Many are the social experiments which have demon- 
strated how children and even adults, removed from 
their discouraging and deteriorating environment, have 
turned out to be satisfactory citizens. One has only to 
think of the work done by Dr. Barnardo's Homes, by 



EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 209 

Dr. Graham of Kalimpong, and so on. In India, the 
deterioration of those people comiig from a mixed 
British and Asiatic stock, officially 1 now known as 
* Anglo-Indians,' though formerly, and still generally, as 
Eurasians, is a great problem in administration of Indian 
affairs. Their numbers are rapidly increasing, and they 
soon come to be of a degenerate nature. Dr. Graham, of 
the St. Andrew's Colonial Homes, Kalimpong, India, 
took Eurasian children from the depths of the slums 
in Indian cities and native bazaars and brought them 
up in an entirely new environment in the Himalayan 
Mountains ; a new environment in every sense, physical, 
mental, and moral. After fourteen years he states that 
environment has triumphed ; that these Eurasian lads 
and girls have grown up into men and women trust- 
worthy, truthful, clean, reliable, and useful. Employers 
nearly always speak well of them, and having had one 
in employ, ask for more. One is bound to feel that if 
these youths and girls marry women and men equally 
emancipated from degradation, and if succeeding genera- 
tions are in this way nurtured under a salutary environ- 
ment, the effect of generations of bad environment 
may be obliterated. Dr. Graham holds that these 
children have good hereditary possibilities, but that 
these have been prevented from developing by lack of 
appropriate environment. In his experiment he has 
provided the salutary environment, with results that 
wholly justify his theory. Here lies the immense im- 
portance of environment ; that under the wisely directed 
social control of man, it may be regulated and organised 
to encourage and strengthen the development of good 
traits, to limit and inhibit the development of bad 
1 Since 1911. 
14 



210 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 

traits ; it may possibly supply a stimulus which may 
tend to help variational occurrences (i.e. new characters 
springing into existence) to arise. We recognise, of 
course, that certain traits are free from the domination 
of the environmental factor, e.g. no change in environ- 
ment is likely to obliterate the hereditary factor of 
albinism or of haemophilia. But in regard to many 
inherited tendencies of a physical or moral nature, the 
importance of the nurtural factor is very great. A 
youth with a tendency towards tuberculosis becomes 
strong and resistant in a salubrious climate ; a youth 
with a liability to succumb to alcoholic intoxication, or 
who comes from a crime-burdened stock, is strengthened 
in his resistance when placed in a fortifying, physical 
and moral, environment. 

No judicious improvement in environment can ever 
do any harm, nor can we gainsay the value of a desire 
for better things, a desire which is only slowly accumu- 
lated by tradition and experience, and which is certain 
to bring in its train some of the better things thus 
desired. Let this inspire our education for parenthood. 



CHAPTER X 

Education for Parenthood — Some Suggestions 

To turn our thoughts now to some suggestions for a 
practical policy. A practical policy may be in time, 
more or less widely adopted, but one cannot at present 
do more than suggest what it may comprise, and 
suggest to whom its pursuit should fall. The thoughtful 
parents, wishing the best for their children, will seek to 
place them under the rightly beneficial home, educational, 
and social influence ; the less thoughtful or less fortunate 
parents maybe dependent upon the schools, the churches, 
the social and legislative organisations, for an impulse 
towards right training of their children, or even, in the 
interests of the nation, should have their efforts en- 
forced and supplemented by these authorities with, of 
course, the minimum possible weakening of parental 
responsibility. 

A great deal may be done through school-work, and 
continuation classes in the case of elementary school 
children ; in the secondary and public schools, girls and 
boys continue to attend school till they are seventeen 
or eighteen years of age, when much valuable influence 
may infiltrate their school life. However, the bulk of 
the nation's children leave school at the age of fourteen, 
and for them the problem of the continuation school 



212 EDUCATION FOE PARENTHOOD 

is greatly urgent, in relation to some aspects of this 
question of education for parenthood. 

Let us consider first the question of the parental 
instinct. Human nature is a bundle of instincts, each 
of which is associated with a definite emotional con- 
dition. These instincts are innate, deep-seated, and 
not peculiar to man alone. The birds know how to 
care for and train their nestlings ; the tigress can see 
her little ones safely through the days of babyhood ; 
she needs no teaching : nor does the cat need ought 
but her true instinct to lead her to feed her kittens and 
to train them in the art of self-defence. Man has a 
long infancy ; hence is in great need of parental care. 
His powers are higher, more elaborate, more intricate 
in correlation than those of the animals, more difficult 
of establishment in stability ; hence, again, the great 
need for parental care. In man, subjected as he has 
been and is, to the incoming domination of reason, the 
instincts are less defined and less clearly directive. 
With the parental instinct in the human race, this is 
so. The human mother needs educating in the duties 
of motherhood, and in the human father this instinct 
stands in need of reinforcement, for it is less powerful 
in man than in woman. 

There are adults who seem to have little of the parental 
instinct developed, or in whom it has gone astray, lavish- 
ing its expression over creatures that matter little. But 
the great majority are not so meagrely equipped with 
Nature's bounties. They love children ; they care 
for children and guard them. In the human rkce, the 
parental instinct leads to more than protection, feeding, 
and training ; it is linked on to the tender emotion, and 
we love children. 



EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 213 

The racial instinct leads to children being brought 
into the world, the parental instinct directs for their 
nurture. The parental instinct may exist without the 
racial instinct itself being very strong : there are women, 
for example, who care for children and love them, but 
have no desire for marriage ; there are women, married 
and unmarried, and men, too, who devote their lives to 
the care of other lives ; witness the nurses and matrons 
in hospitals, the workers in the Salvation Army, teachers, 
social workers, and so on, people who may or may not 
have children of their own, but who have a strongly 
expressive parental instinct which leads them to take up 
and fulfil such work j oyously . 

We have dealt fully in the foregoing chapters with 
the history and nurture of the racial instinct. Every- 
thing that goes to uplift, fortify, purify, and maintain 
the racial instinct will enhance the object of that instinct 
— parenthood. But we need more than that — the 
parental instinct itself must be kept alive, fostered, and 
carefully nurtured. We see its beginnings in child- 
hood, when the little girl plays * little mother ' to her 
dolls, or flutters round the new baby caressingly ; when 
the little boy looks after his rabbits and pet rats in his 
more brusque and less demonstrative fashion. Some 
children possess the buddings of this instinct more 
strongly than others do, just as adults vary in regard 
to their instinctive sympathies. 

It is probable that intensity of parental instinct may 
be inborn ; that the children of those parents who 
naturally expend great love and care over their children 
will be likely to possess a well-developed instinct. 

But it is more than probable that this instinct may 
t)e weakened and suppressed as the children grow up. 



214 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 

A boy naturally goes through a stage in life when he 
suppresses sternly anything that looks like a show of 
feeling, and it is possible that — particularly if through 
lack of wise tuition, his knowledge of the racial instinct 
is of a degraded nature — the parental instinct, already 
not very intense, may not survive this period of sup- 
pression, or may only gather its surviving fragments 
together very slowly and in weak formation. 

Girls, too, during the early years of adolescence are 
frequently intensely sensitive, and very susceptible to 
impression, and I am confident that great harm is 
frequently done to the girl's nature by chance thought- 
less remarks of adults, remarks that are not meant 
seriously, but that leave their impress, though they 
themselves are forgotten, upon the sensitive, emotional 
nature of the young girl. " Never get married, Molly ; 
babies are a perfect nuisance ! " cries the busy mother. 
" I'd rather have golf than a baby any day ! " says the 
young wife quite openly. Who is to know that a heart- 
break is hidden under the callous words ? And, again, 
when the phenomena of puberty make their appearance, 
instead of parents wisely leading the boy or girl to a 
right view of these changes, and incidentally fostering 
the parental and racial instincts, so often they make 
the mistake of depreciating and disparaging their 
significance. 

The boy and girl, then, should be exposed to no influence 
which will be liable to discourage the parental instinct 
or to extinguish a light that is flickering. One of the 
risks of modern higher education of girls is that there 
may be a tendency to ignore the goal of womanhood, or 
even to displace motherhood from its throne. The 
supreme privilege of mankind is parenthood — mother- 



EDUCATION FOE PARENTHOOD 215 

hood and fatherhood. The ideal should never be lost 
or submerged. In its pursuit it may involve sacrifice : 
to encourage selflessness, hence, will be one means of 
encouraging the parental instinct towards full fruition. 

To consider now some other ways in which education 
for parenthood may be carried out, we must realise that 
many agencies may be brought into collaboration, that 
the eugenic ideal is our aim, and that there are many 
lights which lead towards it. 

Let us open the eyes of boys and girls to the heritable- 
ness of traits, to the fact that this generation is respons- 
ible for future generations. " Like father, like son " is a 
matter of such everyday observation that it is common- 
place, and we fail, perhaps, to appreciate it. In school- 
work it is possible to do much, not only to bring out the 
importance of the hereditary factor, but to stimulate 
the spirit of inquiry into the heritableness of traits, and, 
incidentally, to sow the seeds of desire for the highest. 
It is not necessary to arrange a syllabus of work ponder- 
ously to deal with heredity : a careful, wise selection of 
subject-matter, a readiness to make the most of potent 
illustration, will go far towards infusing school-work 
with the eugenic ideal. The teacher who realises the 
possibilities of education for parenthood will be quick 
to make the most of opportunities. 

Nature study, as we have already seen in an earlier 
chapter, may be a great illuminant. What is it that 
makes the specks of jelly deposited on water-weeds by 
a c&ddis-fly grow into little grubs which can build a 
home of weed or of sand or of selected snail shells, just 
as the parent fly did in its grub-days ? What is it that 
leads the seed from a Red Campion to grow into a 
red-flowered plant which is open and attractive during 



216 EDUCATION FOE PARENTHOOD 

the day, and the seed from a White Campion to grow 
into a white-flowered plant with the habit of sleeping 
during the day and opening wide at twilight to cast 
its sweetness upon the air ? 

Why, if we are anxious to have a good garden show, 
do we insist on getting good seeds from the seedsman ? 
What do we mean by good seeds ? If seeds are diseased 
do they grow up into healthy, strong plants ? 1 

Then in Botany, an acquaintance with Mendel's 
work in hybridisation shows the fact of ' recessiveness ' 
of characters, and also shows how in plants new types 
may be obtained by a new combination of factors. The 
ordinary scope of botanical work in secondary school 
work would not as a rule allow of anything deeper than 
the attainment of these two steps ; but inquiry is 
stimulated thereby. " Is it the same in us ? " is an 
almost invariable question to come from an intelligent 
pupil. 

Biology, however, though extremely important in 
the part it may play in education for parenthood, both 
in providing an illuminating approach to enlightenment 
on sex phenomena and in providing an acquaintance 
with heredity, is not, by any means, our only hope. 

The teacher of Hygiene deals with many questions 
in a simple, instructive way, and should emphasise the 
personal obligation of keeping fit and healthy. Lessons 
on Alcoholism, Tuberculosis, should be utilised to show 
the effect of these plagues upon society and the race. 
Physiology should include a brief treatment of the 
racial organs, given the same measure and method of 
treatment as the other organic systems receive. Boys 
and girls should realise that they possess racial organs 
1 See Appendix, " Germination of Healthy and Unhealthy Seeds." 



EDUCATION EOR PARENTHOOD 217 

just as they realise they possess respiratory and digestive 
organs. The approach to Physiology and Hygiene is, 
of course, greatly simplified by nature study and biologic 
work. If, then, they realise that they possess racial 
organs, and that these organs play a very important 
part in the well-being of the body, they will neither be 
discomfited, alarmed, nor harmed to know that these 
organs, as is the case with all the organs of the body, 
may be subject to diseases more or less special to them. 
The parallel of tuberculosis may be used — classifying 
the diseases as ' social diseases.' Just as tuberculosis 
most commonly attacks the lungs, but may attack 
other parts of the body, so syphilis and gonococcus 
infection most frequently attack the racial organs, but 
the germ may find a hold in other parts of the body. 
Just as the children of tubercular people tend to be 
weakly, so do the children of people suffering from the 
other social diseases tend to be weakly and diseased, 
if the parents are uncured of their disease. It is all a 
question of attitude : establish the right healthy, moral 
attitude towards all the body functions, and none need 
present themselves over-emphatically. If we have 
been successful in leading boys and girls to view sex 
aright, and if we are encouraging them to pursue an 
ideal of conduct which involves an ideal of love and of 
marriage, the knowledge that they need in regard to 
social diseases, is mainly what would be sufficient to 
protect them from innocent infection and to contribute 
towards their ideal of health. There may be, nay will 
be, cases of boys and girls who need more information 
than this to safeguard them. Their problem will be 
discussed in a later chapter. 

Hygiene, as we need it taught, is intensely personal 



218 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 

in its implication, and with the deepest personal details 
it is best that the mothers, who see to all the wants of 
their children, should deal. But the teacher often finds 
herself (or himself), in the interests of the child, bound 
to act as mother-substitute, and to give the quiet word 
wisely spoken. 

Literature, History, Geography, may each make their 
contribution towards eugenic education in the school, 
while that vague ogre, " General Knowledge,'' comes, 
too, to lend its aid to the cause. Perhaps a few examples 
will serve to show. 

A reference to Darwin comes some time or other (or 
should come, at any rate) into school-work. Why not 
bring out clearly the fact that Charles Darwin was one 
of a very gifted family, that his grandfather, Erasmus 
Darwin, was a poet, philosopher, and physician; his 
father, Dr. Robert Darwin, a man of extreme scientific 
ability : that altogether in five generations the family of 
Darwin (together with the Wedgwoods and Galtons, who 
were related) produced sixteen men of great scientific 
ability, nine of whom were Fellows of the Royal Society ? 
Ten of these greatly able men were direct descendants 
of Erasmus Darwin. Francis Galton, the founder of 
Modern Eugenics, was a grandson of Erasmus Darwin 
through the second marriage ; Charles Darwin a grand- 
son through the first marriage of Erasmus Darwin. 

The history of French Canada supplies an interesting 
account of systematic colonisation. This system of 
colonisation, inaugurated by Richelieu in 1627, was 
formulated with the object of fortifying the imperial 
power by development of a strong settlement. Only 
emigrants of the best type were brought into the new 
land, men of bad character were excluded, early marriage 



EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 219 



Wedgwood Dabwin Galton 



© Shows Man of Scientific Ability. 

£ Shows Man of Scientific Ability who is also a 

Fellow of the Royal Society. 
© Shows five other Children and so on. 



A, Charles Darwin. 

B, Sir Francis Galton. 

(By kind permission of Mr. and Mrs. Whetham, 
Authors of The Family and the Nation.) 



220 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 

was facilitated, the people encouraged to have large 
families, and though this scheme was interrupted for 
a few years during the .period when Quebec was sur- 
rendered to the English, and again returned to the French 
in 1632, it was resumed later, with such success that, 
we are told, the population of French Canada trebled 
between the years 1664 and 1674. Inter-marriage with 
Indians was discouraged ; the race kept pure, concen- 
trating its worth, with the result that an industrious, 
true-hearted, rapidly-increasing Roman Catholic popula- 
tion came to find its home in the State. 

The development of racial characteristics may fre- 
quently be accounted for by and associated with the 
geographical position of the people. Take the case of a 
people hedged in by mountains away from the sea — the 
Swiss, for example, a group of the typical Alpine race. 
Consider the evolution of their national type of char- 
acter, due to the geographical limit of their environment 
and to the manifold ways in which a group of people 
adapts itself, in the exercise of self-preservation, to its 
geographical circumstances, perpetuating and intensify- 
ing its evolved characteristics by inter-marriage. 

In the Scandinavian Peninsulas and on the shores of 
the lowland countries bordering the North Sea is to be 
found the typical northern race, split up into national 
groups, each having developed its peculiar national 
characteristics. The struggle for existence has been 
intensely hard in these north lands. Hence we find 
vigour, endurance, strong physique, perseverance, 
keen spirit of adventure characteristic of the northern 
race. But the Mediterranean race, its home in more 
luxuriously climatic conditions, is typically easy-going, 
luxury-loving, happy-natured, vivacious, less powerful 



EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 221 

in physique than the northern, and less adventuresome 
in spirit. Hence the supremacy of the northerns, 
when they have set forth to enlarge their boundaries. 
Where the races have been comparatively free from 
admixture we find the characteristic shape of the 
head, eye-colour, complexion, hair-colour, and stature 
clearly identifiable, but where racial admixture has 
taken place, these characters tend to lose their dis- 
tinctiveness. 

In the study of historical characters one is interested 
to trace the perpetuation of dominating features, physical 
and mental. The Stuarts were all more or less possessed 
of a highly-strung and unstable temperament, all the 
Bourbons had a particularly recognisable nose, Henry 
the Second showed the double strain in his ancestry, the 
Angevin and Norman inheritance, while William the 
Second had the same determination of character that his 
father possessed, although it expressed itself in different 
ways. 

The foregoing are just examples of the way in which 
some of the subjects already in the school curriculum 
may lend themselves to reinforce the idea of heredity 
as being a dominant factor in the deterinination of 
racial and of family characteristics, and their value lies, 
not so much in the facts themselves, as in the way in 
which they may serve to awaken and keep alert a vivid 
thoughtfulness on questions similar and akin. Dur- 
ing the years of school age, for the most part, the mind 
is too immature to cope with controversial matters and 
to see the actions of individuals in their correct social 
perspective. Certain definite facts may well find a 
roothold in the adolescent mind, but the greatest part 
of education for parenthood which can be achieved during 



222 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 

these school years, while to the young mind parenthood 
itself, as yet is such a remote possibility, is that which 
makes for the gradual upbuilding and strengthening of 
character, mentality, and of ideal, so that, as the years 
of late adolescence and early adulthood draw near, the 
ego will be not unprepared for the eventualities which 
may approach. 

While we are thus striving to raise the ideal of personal 
achievement, a sense of dissatisfaction with that which 
is below should make its way into the mind. The law 
of attraction must always hold good : man will attract 
woman and woman will attract man. Can we rear our 
boys and girls in such a psychic atmosphere that they 
will only be sensitive to and yield to the attractiveness 
of a personality which is equally inspired as their own ? 
Race culture is, after all, a question of psychology, and 
Love is the guiding-star. The day may come when 
Man and Woman are possessed of such a truly sensitised 
Love that it will unerringly attract only and respond only 
to the Love of the one who would be the fittest — in the 
highest sense of the word — to bring that Love to its 
highest consummation. 

Our lives, however, are a tantalising mixture of the 
psychic and the physical : and we would nurture both. 

Boys and girls should lead an active, self-expressive 
life, regarding it, when they are mature enough to appre- 
ciate the sense of duty, as a personal duty to keep fit and 
healthy. Let them grow up vigorously self-expressive 
in those attributes which are an asset to the race : 
discourage the development of those which are anti- 
social. Let them have full opportunity of finding their 
highest capacity and developing their innate powers, 



EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 223 

so that they may reach their full expression of person- 
ality and may secure these traits for the race. The 
repressed child, forbidden to play, forbidden to make 
a noise, denied freedom in exercise, discouraged in 
attempts at doing things for himself, is little likely to 
develop into a strong, vigorous personality full of inde- 
pendence in spirit and in thought. 

Let us now turn to some more purely practical aspects 
of education for parenthood. What can be done to 
prepare boys and girls for coping with their future 
responsibilities as fathers and mothers ? In the ele- 
mentary schools, the boys and girls leave at the age 
of fourteen : under present organisation of national 
education most of them pass entirely away from school 
influence and are left to fend for themselves. So that, 
so far as the elementary schools are concerned — and that 
means so far as the bulk of the nation's youth is con- 
cerned — what is to be done must be done before the boys 
and girls leave school. 

In many of the schools some lessons in ' Mothercraft ' 
are given to girls, as also are courses of Domestic 
Economy ; and it is encouraging to hear from district 
visitors and from the teachers themselves that the 
teaching the girls receive in the schools is making its 
impression upon the home life. The girls of thirteen 
and fourteen in the poorer classes are, on the whole, 
maturer for their age than the girls of the more luxuried 
classes. Hence education in the sciences of Mother- 
craft and Domestic Economy are found to be not without 
valuable result when given to these girls in the ele- 
mentary schools, and though one would wish that the 
school-leaving age might be extended, or that part- 
time attendance might be possible so that instruction 



224 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 

might be carried on for a longer period, there is already 
every encouragement to persist. Such instruction 
should be very practical. We should beware of falling 
into the error of a certain education authority which 
Mr. and Mrs. Whetham mention. 1 This authority 
at one and the same meeting passed two resolutions : 
in the first it forbade parents to keep their daughters 
from school to help their mothers during the few weeks 
following childbirth In the second resolution it recom- 
mended that part of the school equipment should be 
full-sized dolls and complete layettes, in order that the 
elder girls might become accustomed to the care and 
protection of infant life ! 

Instruction in mothercraft should recognise the 
fact that care of the baby begins nine months before 
the baby is born, and that a mother's responsibilities do 
not begin at birth of the baby. Recognise this informa- 
tion as coming just in its proper sequence, as part of the 
general information on sex and parenthood to which 
every girl and boy has a right, and its valuable import 
is evident. 

The economics of housekeeping is a serious trial to 
many a mother who would do her best for her family 
on a small income, and an astonishing amount of ignor- 
ance on the question of food values prevails. Conse- 
quently we find that children are fed improperly and 
inadequately, even when the family wage is not wholly 
inadequate. While girls should learn how to purchase 
food, how to prepare cheap and nutritious meals, how to 
manage a house, keep it clean, how to look after children, 
and generally, how to fulfil a woman's portion in the 
family life, boys should have a certain amount of 

1 Heredity and Society, by W. C. D. and C. S. Whetham. 



EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 225 

training which shall help them to understand the 
economics of household life and fit them to do their 
share. Handwork is taught in many schools now. 
Here would be an opportunity of training a boy to be a 
general * handy-man' in the house, and not to be ashamed 
of lessening the household expenditure by contributing 
his own share to its working. So often it falls upon the 
wife to be jack-of -all-trades : she papers the walls, 
whitewashes the ceilings, and does a multitude of things 
that the husband might do, were he rightly appreciative 
of his manhood and capable of doing his items. There 
is already a tendency to teach arithmetic on lines 
directly applicable to home life — a wholly valuable 
departure, which should help both boys and girls to 
realise what it costs to set up housekeeping, what it 
may cost to carry it on, what may be possible on a 
certain household income, together with the methods of 
saving money to the greatest advantage. 

Training in what may thus be called briefly ' Parent- 
craft ' should form part of every boy's and every girl's 
education, whatever be their walk in life, in essentials 
the same, in detail appropriated to their possible circum- 
stances. 

The last ten years have seen a great expansion of 
interest in health matters : indeed, as Dr. Pritchard 
says, " It has become the fashion to take an intelligent 
interest in health matters generally." * And in no 
branch is this more true than in the health of babies. 
Seventy years ago, the death-rate among babies in some 
of our largest cities was extraordinarily high. Out of 
every thousand children born, six hundred died before 

1 The Infant : Nutrition and Management, by Eric Pritchard, 
M.D. Published by Arnold (3s. 6d.). 

15 



226 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 

they were five years old. 1 One of the problems, then, 
which faces the nation, is not so much the falling birth- 
rate, but the problem of how to keep alive the babies 
that are born. 

" There are three main channels through which 
influence may be brought to bear by the State to secure 
the physical efficiency of children. First, the promotion 
of healthy motherhood by ensuring proper and adequate 
attention to the physical condition of the mother herself ; 
second, the promotion of healthy infancy by instructing 
and training the mother how to bring up her child after 
it is born, and by providing assistance when she is not 
able to care for it efficiently ; third, the promotion of 
healthy childhood by means of systematic medical super- 
vision and education in hygiene during school life/' 2 

Since 1900, however, there has been a most satisfactory 
decline in the death-rate of infants, from 155 per 1000 
at the end of the nineteenth century to 95 per 1000 in 
1912, and though there will be several correlated causes, 
this decline is, beyond doubt, partly accounted for by 
the great advance in knowledge of the care and needs 
of infant life, and the spreading of this knowledge among 
the people. In London, in 1904, the Westminster 
Health Society entered into existence and was speedily 
followed by others both in London and in other parts of 
the country. 

There is now an ever-increasing number of Schools for 
Mothers, Infant Consultations, Child Welfare Associa- 
tions, Health Societies, and so forth, where the manage- 
ment and care of infant- and child-life forms the main 

1 The Problem oj Race Regeneration, by H. Ellis. Published by 
Cassells (6d.). 

1 See the Sixth Annual Report issued by Sir Geo. Newman, Chief 
Medical Officer to the Board of £ ducation. 



EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 227 

part of educational work done, and through these 
agencies valuable knowledge is making its way to un- 
tutored mothers. The existence and availability of 
such institutions should be made very widely known, as 
it may be made known by social workers and others 
who come into touch with the people who need such 
instruction. And at school, in connection with mother- 
craft or hygiene lessons, their work should be made known 
to the elder girls, so that they, when their turn comes, 
may not be in ignorance as to where to go for help. 
Indeed, it might well be impressed that it is a mother's 
duty to attend these institutions in order to find out 
whether she already knows the best that it is possible 
for her to do, or whether there is more for her to learn. 

In an earlier chapter we dealt with certain aspects 
of training the habit life, and it may not be superfluous 
here to draw attention to the matter again. The spread 
of tuberculosis is more rapid among the poorer classes 
than among the higher and more luxuried classes ; 
partly, no doubt, because of the comparative freedom 
from overcrowding and other unhealthy conditions 
which obtains among the richer classes, but also very 
largely because the habits of refinement which come 
naturally to those who have had every advantage of 
training, tend to discourage spread of infection, while 
among the poorer people, who have had less or no 
training, we find those whose habits are unrestrained 
and often unclean, often thus directly contributing to 
the spread of the social disease, tuberculosis. Of course 
hygiene and domestic economy lessons should provide 
many details of instruction, which should help in the 
crusade against tuberculosis, but the importance of 



228 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 

the personal habit factor must be well in the minds of 
those who have in charge the training of children ; the 
habits must be grafted in childhood, the knowledge 
may come later. 

And the same principles carried out will aid in the 
crusade against the other two social diseases, syphilis and 
gonococcus infection. Habits of cleanliness, of reserve 
in conduct, of reticence in the use of other people's or 
of public toilet accessories should be formed in child- 
hood, so that they may persist as an effective safeguard 
throughout life. 

One more thought in connection with the training of 
children seems to have a bearing upon our subject. 
Extravagance in disposition, extravagance in dress, in 
amusements, should be guarded against. Girls should 
be brought up to dress nicely and well in proportion to 
their circumstances, but they should not be encouraged 
to cultivate an ardour in following fashions and seeking 
the latest adornment, whatever be the cost. Nor 
should golf and other pastimes assume predominant 
importance as one of life's necessities. For it is no 
infrequent observation to find both men and women 
who refuse to enter into marriage because they find 
themselves unable to deny themselves certain luxuries, 
and cannot afford both — or if they do enter into marriage, 
they, for the same reason, refuse to have children. Such 
a spirit is highly prejudicial to the race, and should be 
discouraged in our nation's children. 

There is much to be said in favour of bringing up 
girls with the idea that they should adopt some pro- 
fession or some definite occupation In the poorer 
classes, there is no question of this : every girl is bound 
to fend for herself. But in the middle and luxuried 



EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 229 

classes the principle does not always obtain, though it 
is rapidly gaining a wider foothold. Provided that, 
with such an object in view, a ,girl does not depreciate 
the value of domesticity, and provided that her pro- 
fession is not carried on at the expense of physical and 
emotional energy which should be conserved for her 
supreme functioning, then the independence which she 
so gains is a great asset. She has time to know herself, 
time to know the world a little ; she is not hurried into 
matrimony by the idea that if she does not accept an 
early chaiice she may be left to a poverty-stricken or 
lonely old age ; she, secure in her independence, financial 
and moral, can wait till she meets ' the right man/ 
who will love her the more, not the less, for her power 
of waiting. 

But — and this applies to boys as well as to girls — 
those who are responsible for guiding them in the choice 
of employment should lead them to avoid culs-de-sac> 
those ' jobs ' or posts which carry with them a good 
wage as a beginning, but which lead to no possibility 
of extension or promotion, for the day comes when the 
boy who began so well finds the future barren of 
promise. 

In conclusion, let us note how much may be done 
indirectly to aid on the cause of education for parent- 
hood. There are many questions, social, legislative, 
educational, which will have to be faithfully considered 
by the nation, in the interests of national progress — 
the increase of degeneracy and its cost to the State, 
the care of expectant motherhood, the influence of 
taxation upon the home and the family, the effect 
of emigration, housing and sanitation, employment of 
married women, employment of children, and so on, 



230 EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 

just to mention a few that enter the mind at the moment. 
There are many reforms which will come only when 
they are the demand of an enlightened social conscious- 
ness. Those who have the privilege of training children, 
of influencing their thoughts, of stimulating their 
mental activity, and of widening their sympathies, will 
do well to encourage the spirit of inquiry and of thought- 
fulness. Civics may provide an impetus to intelligent 
patriotism, and may train a keen national sense. The 
intensest and most genuine patriotism will look into the 
ego first, sure that the foundations of a nation's strength 
lie in the integrity of its citizens. And if our boys and 
girls are led to think sincerely upon things that matter, 
if their initiative and enterprise are developed in a 
wholesome direction, so that they do not accept blindly 
all that may be offered for their mental consumption, 
and if they cherish a hope that they may do and be that 
which is worthy — then when schooldays are over and 
youthhood is well advanced we may find the ground 
ready for planting. Direct information on the advance- 
ment of the race, and the part the individual may 
play therein, will come acceptably and profitably. That 
is the time for direct eugenic appeal. 



CHAPTEK XI 

Social Safeguarding 

There is still another aspect of our problem, to 
which we should bend our attention. Though the 
main object of training children towards an upright 
sex life, and of fitting them, so far as education can 
enable us to do so, for their possible vocation of 
parenthood, is a positive or constructive one, and is 
by far the widest in its influence and scope, we have to 
recognise the negative or repressive aspect of the 
problem. Society and social conditions at the present 
day are such as, in many ways, greatly foster vice, 
encourage immorality, and place many pitfalls before 
the unwary and unguided. It behoves us, therefore, to 
understand some of these detrimental social conditions, 
so that our good efforts in the positive, constructive 
direction may not be thwarted nor their results neutral- 
ised. For, besides inducing the adolescent towards the 
true, high conception of the racial functions, we have to 
safeguard them from the possibilities of social evil. 
There are many adults, and some younger ones, whose 
attitude towards the sex life is, by some misfortune of 
experience, of upbringing, of heredity, or of circumstance, 
degraded, and from these, and from similar deteriorating 
circumstances and experiences, it must be our great effort 

to protect the children we are training. A knowledge 

231 



232 SOCIAL SAFEGUARDING 

of the enemies we are fighting, of the forces that are 
against us, will strengthen us and will help us to make our 
teaching and our care of child-life more securely effective. 
Let us consider a question upon which we have already 
touched several times — the question o£ venereal infec- 
tion. There is great need for adolescents having some 
protective knowledge of sex hygiene. It has already 
been pointed out how many habits of cleanliness and of 
reserve in conduct may be formed in childhood, habits 
which will be a direct safeguard against infection in 
later life. 1 Again, it has been pointed out that if our 
method of training boys and girls to have an exalted 
idea of love, marriage, and parenthood, and all that 
pertains thereto, is effective, there is small need, if any, 
to attempt to reinforce our teaching by deterrent or 
frightening information on the subject of sexual disease. 
At the same time, they should be informed of the exist- 
ence of these diseases, so that they may secure them- 
selves from innocent infection, and so that they may 
take into account the question of social disease in relation 
to parenthood, that they may understand their own 
personal responsibility in regard to • parenthood. To 
bring delicate, unfit, or deformed children into the 
world is not only a sorrow to the parents, but is a crime 
against the race. It is in this way that the appeal 
should be made ; that, slowly making its way into the 
general conception of marriage which is formulating 
itself in the adolescent mind, should come an ideal of 
physical fitness in every way, which it should be the aim 
to secure, both in the self and in the partner for marriage. 
Parents interesting themselves in the prospective 
marriage of their children usually pay due regard to 
1 See Chapters IV. and V. on " Care of Children " and " Supervision." 



SOCIAL SAFEGUAKDING 233 

the financial conditions which are likely to attend the 
marriage : the health of the would-be partners is of 
greater importance, if parents would only realise it. 
A young couple, in good grace, can cope with the demon 
poverty, and win, but the demon disease is a mightier 
foe. Healthy children handicapped by poverty have a 
better chance of justifying their parents' marriage than 
have children handicapped by disease. Moral and 
physical worth should come first ; financial worth is 
secondary. 

Who should inform boys and girls on the subject of 
these particular diseases which play so great a part in 
racial degeneration ? And when should the informa- 
tion be given to them ? Before definitely answering 
these questions, let us take our thoughts back to what 
has been said before, in Chapter X., and see this in- 
formation coming into the mind of the adolescent in 
its correct proportion and in its correct perspective, 
being just part of the knowledge regarding sex which 
everyone should have. 

The child is accustomed to the idea that we possess 
racial organs, just as much as he is accustomed to the 
idea that we possess digestive, respiratory, and other 
organs. He knows that, for example, the lungs may 
become diseased, so may the heart, and so may the 
racial organs. As he grows older, he knows that such 
a cause of disease as * infection • exists. Let him then 
realise that the racial organs may be subject to in- 
fectious disease just as the lungs may become infected 
by certain special disease germs, and that infection maybe 
conveyed in two ways, from one person to another either 
directly, by bodily contact, or indirectly, by contact 
with articles which, being used by infected persons, 



234 SOCIAL SAFEGUARDING 

have become infected. In explaining the nature and 
effect of these diseases, the parallel of tuberculosis, as 
has already been indicated, 1 may facilitate greatly. 
In the ordinary way, one would say that details as 
to the harmfulness of these diseases should not be 
laboured upon. Remember it is no part of our general 
scheme to terrify boys and girls into restraint, though 
one recognises, of course, that to some natures the 
restraint of fear is the only one that will appeal, and to 
such natures, this mode of appeal should be utilised 
to reinforce the higher appeal. However, speaking 
generally, it should be sufficient to say that these 
diseases, if allowed to remain untreated, bring very great 
suffering in their train, not only to the men and women 
who may be ill in this way, but to the children they 
may in time become parent to, if, indeed, they are able 
to enter into the joy of parenthood at all. The chief 
way in which these diseases gain a hold upon society 
is through people who lead immoral lives. We have 
already seen 2 how one may enlighten boys and girls 
as to the social evil, prostitution, enlighten them in 
such a manner that their restraint will be strengthened, 
yet their sensitiveness may not be crudely injured. 

To boys, a frank talk should come earlier than to 
girls, because as a rule boys lead lives more exposed to 
social danger than girls do. To attempt to specify 
definitely the age at which the subject should be intro- 
duced, would be valueless. So much depends upon the 
circumstances, experience, and nature of the children 
in question. On the whole, one may feel justified in 
saying that there may be only very exceptional cases 
where any reference may be necessary before puberty ; 

1 In Chapter X. 2 In Chapter V. 



SOCIAL SAFEGUARDING 235 

and generally, to boys and girls who lead protected 
lives, about sixteen, seventeen, or eighteen years of age 
would be early enough. With those who are more 
likely to be exposed to risks, some information should 
be given earlier. But, again, I can only say that those 
who are concerned with the training of children must 
each judge the best time for themselves, always guarding 
against being too abrupt or too wholesale in their 
information, and always facing the matter faithfully 
in the interests of the children. Many boys, often 
quite young, are led entirely astray by wrong information 
given to them by misguided or evil-minded men, among 
many of whom it is a common idea, that to contract 
gonorrhoea is a sign of manhood. We must take care 
of our boys and fortify their bodies and their minds 
against such possible poison. 

Undoubtedly the parents would best talk to their 
young boys and their young girls about these diseases, 
if they are ready to do so : just as, to the parents 
should come the privilege of, in every way 
directing and inspiring the life of their children. 
Many agencies — the school, the church, social 
agencies, etc. — may supplement and aid the work 
of the parent — indeed, may frequently have to drift or 
step into the place of the parent. But ideally, we 
would hope that the father or the mother would deal, 
in their own gentle confidence, with this question of 
sexual disease. There may be cases where the boy or 
girl is dissatisfied with the information given, or may 
refuse to believe it. Then possibly, the family physician 
might help. The boy could be told that if he desires 
to know more or to have the facts verified, Dr. So-and-so 
will tell him all he wants to know. The school doctor 



236 SOCIAL SAFEGUAKDING 

or the family doctor may frequently in this way, or 
when some other poignant opportunity arises, seize 
the psychological moment and help in the task of sex 
enlightenment. We must, however, consider the ques- 
tion of those boys and girls whose parents cannot be 
relied upon to help them, for it is just those who stand 
most in need of help whose parents are least fitted to 
give it. Here the teacher, the social worker, the scout- 
master, the church-worker, thoroughly understanding 
his aim, and thoroughly grasping his subject, having a 
true insight into the needs, emotions, and conflicts of 
adolescent life, can step in to do the work. Each boy 
and girl leaving school, might be helped by a short talk 
from the head teacher or a teacher on the staff, thoroughly 
competent in knowledge and personality, to deal with 
the matter helpfully. Girls' clubs could arrange . a 
course of addresses dealing with the subjects of woman's 
responsibilities, in which sex hygiene, though not 
described in this technical term, would find a part. 
In connection with confirmation classes and similar 
religious meetings an opportunity affords itself, 1 and 
may be made a very effective means of securing sex 
integrity. However, the number of youths and girls 
who come within the reach of social and church organisa- 
tions is comparatively few. Therefore, one's thoughts 
fly back to the school as the most far-reaching agent, 
and one would urge most sincerely that some national 
step in this direction be prepared for and achieved. 

Although the purpose of this book ia mainly con- 
cerned with instruction of children and early adolescents, 
one must not leave this question of sex hygiene without 

1 See Training the Young in Laws oj Sex, by Canon Edward 
Lyttelton. 



SOCIAL SAFEGUAKDING 237 

emphasising a most important fact in connection with 
the control of venereal diseases. These diseases, terrible 
as they may be in the long run, usually yield readily to 
treatment in the early stages, and this fact should be 
widely known, so that anyone suspecting themselves to be 
infected either casually, innocently, or culpably, should in 
duty bound,seek immediate medical advice and treatment. 

We may turn now to the social evil, prostitution, and 
see what may be done in connection with the training 
of children to mitigate this great evil. While it is 
undoubtedly a question of supply and demand, we 
must look deeply into the social question to find out 
what it is that leads a girl to adopt such a means of 
livelihood. The demand is apparently, largely due to 
a wrong conception of masculine necessity. Hence the 
demand may be greatly lessened, probably almost 
wholly lessened, by training boys to know and to regard 
continence not only as possible, but beneficial, and as 
an ideal preparation for marriage. A great consensus 
of expert medical opinion upholds this view. 

Now the supply. So frequently one hears a harsh 
and hasty judgment expressed upon those women who 
agree, for money, to form the supply. They are un- 
fortunate long before they become, if indeed they do 
become, evil. Let us see briefly the results of some 
inquiries into the causes of prostitution, and some of 
the opinions expressed by social and rescue workers. 
Dr. Helen Wilson x found that in a certain inquiry she 
made, very few of the women (less than rt of a total 
of 669 cases) had adopted prostitution solely because 
they were naturally inclined to sexual laxity. In a 

1 Paper read at the Eleventh Congress of the International 
Abolitionist Federation, June 1913. 



238 SOCIAL SAFEGUARDING 

large number of cases bad home conditions, immoral 
home life, lack of a home, desertion by husband, were 
assigned as the reasons for adoption of the life. In 
another large proportion of cases, low wages, out of 
work, husband out of work, left a widow, immoral 
conditions at workplace, were given as the cause. Other 
factors were compulsion (forced to it by husband or 
lover, or ' white slave ' victim), grief or shock, drink, 
seduction, vanity, love of pleasure and insufficient 
means to gratify it. A considerable number of the 
women in question were mentally deficient, and many 
were very weak-willed, having no power of resistance 
against suggestion. These economic, social, and home 
conditions must be considered faithfully in relation to 
the question of prostitution. Women's and girls' wages 
are low — lower than those of men and boys. Their 
needs in the single life are the same as those of men ; 
their desire for pleasure and recreation the same, and 
as legitimate. Their pleasures cost the same. A girl, 
with a natural desire for what she considers her pleasures 
and vanities, but without the means of gratifying it, 
is not unlikely to accept what the men of her acquaint- 
ance offer her, often only too late realising the return 
they expect, and if she is unable to face the struggle, to 
yield weakly. And her first defence and reserve broken 
down, the adoption of a life of degradation is easy. 

Many a girl makes her first downward step in the 
bewilderment of misery occasioned by anxiety : perhaps 
she has lost her situation and cannot find another, 
perhaps she is threatened with destitution through loss 
of health, or loss of husband, perhaps she is over- 
whelmed with solicitations and threats by her employer 
or man-overseer — and in her bewilderment and anxiety 



SOCIAL SAFEGUARDING 239 

falls an easy prey to one of the many temptations which 
many youths and men are only too ready to put in 
her way. Once she has sold her virtue, the downward 
path is an easy one, for when passion is so aroused, when 
the moral sense becomes dulled, the path of least re- 
sistance is generally the one adopted, while to recover 
the lost steps is difficult, perhaps well-nigh impossible, 
if her story becomes known. 

The housing question is of prime importance also. 
In so many poverty-stricken families the housing 
accommodation is totally inadequate to the size of the 
family. Father, mother, and the children all may sleep 
in one room — and not infrequently one corner of the 
room may be let to a man or woman lodger. Now, what 
can one expect of girls and boys who are reared in such 
conditions — conditions which allow them to become 
acquainted with all the facts of life, birth, and death, 
long before those who lead sheltered lives in more 
luxurious homes, ever have their eyes opened to the 
mysteries ? There is no mystery to these unfortunately 
environed children ; all is plain, practical, common- 
place fact. Their parents, too, are usually little better 
than their circumstances, and make no effort, realising 
no need, to safeguard their children. 

Dr. Evangeline Young l has drawn attention to a very 
serious phase of this question of home life and experience 
of early childhood. She has found that apparently, 
one of the prime causes of prostitution is the early 
corruption of little girls. A surprising number of 

1 I am indebted to Dr. Evangeline Young, Director of the School 
of Eugenics, Boston, Mass., for sending me an account of her in- 
vestigations published in the Women's Medical Journal, October 
1913. 



240 SOCIAL SAFEGUAEDING 

little girls are mishandled and subjected to various 
indignities by men and boys, it may be — most frequently 
is, no doubt — by men in their own households. Miss 
Jane Addams, 1 the- notable social worker of Hull House, 
Chicago, bears out this opinion, that very many little 
girls " have first become involved in wrong-doing through 
the men of their own households." And again in the 
quietnesses of country districts, when the children may 
have long, lonely walks to and from school, many ca^es 
of malpractice and offence against little girls take place. 
And the little girls, bribed or threatened into secrecy, 
do not or dare not tell what has happened to them. 

Now, consider what this means. If a little girl has 
become accustomed to such experience, if, moreover, 
she has lived in a house where privacy was not, is it an 
astonishing thing that she may, when she reaches the 
dawn of womanhood, fall an easy victim to the snare 
of general or occasional prostitution ? Dr. Evangeline 
Young found that two-thirds of a considerable number 
(72) of cases of sex assault, which came within two years 
of her experience, were committed where the girl was 
under twelve years of age, while Miss Jane Addams 
quotes an inquiry into 130 cases where the average age 
was eight years. Those who work for the rescue 
of children from undesirable homes, and for the 
prevention of cruelty to children, bear out these 
findings. 2 

1 A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil, by Jane Addams 
(p. 109). Published by the McMillan Co. 

2 During the year 1913-1914 the National Society for Prevention 
of Cruelty to Children dealt with 965 cases classified as " Corruption 
of Morals," under this heading including major and minor sex offences 
against girls, and cases of children whose welfare was prejudiced 
by their living in immoral surroundings. 



SOCIAL SAFEGUARDING 241 

These are terrible facts, and iacts of which those who 
have the care and welfare of children to consider should 
be fully aware, so that their efforts to protect child-life 
should be penetrative into causes. Mothers in all classes 
of society, teachers in all types of schools, are called upon 
to appreciate the risks which lie before little unprotected 
children, and to make every effort to protect these 
little ones from possible calamity. The risks are not 
confined to children of the poor, overcrowded localities 
only, for, among the more luxuried classes, children 
who are left too much to the care of thoughtlessly- 
chosen servants, perhaps of undesirable moral nature, 
are frequently led astray. When dealing with the 
question of supervision of child-life, the caution was 
given then, to choose carefully those dependants to 
whom one's children are to be entrusted, and this is an 
opportunity of reiterating that caution, amplifying the 
caution with the reason for its delivery. 

To summarise our points, then, the problem of prostitu- 
tion is not to be explained away superficially by merely 
charging every prostitute with degraded sex inclination. 
It is true that some — but a minority only — do deliber- 
ately choose the life — and they are to be pitied for their 
choice ; it is also true that a great many who do make 
such a choice are mentally deficient in greater or less 
degree ; it is true that some are of an exceedingly 
weak-willed nature ; and it is true that, once having 
entered into the life, many refuse to give it up, from 
various causes, their moral sense being weakened, their 
passions liberated uncontrolledly, their mode of life 
may be accompanied by many luxuries on which they 
have become dependent, and which they, with their 
narrowed moral perspective, refuse to give up ; but it 
16 



242 SOCIAL SAFEGUARDING 

is also true — and true of the majority of cases — that 
many are the victims, in the first instance, of economic 
pressure, 1 bad homes in childhood and girlhood, social 
temptations, compulsion, drink, misery, early corruption, 
lack of training, lack of knowledge, and all the many 
factors in home, social, and labour life which go to make 
moral survival difficult. 

It is evident, therefore, that many questions of a 
social, economic, legal, and administrative nature (e.g. 
housing of the poor, eugenic control of the mentally 
deficient, raising of the ' age of consent,' etc.) are in- 
volved in the solution of the problem, and some of these 
questions it is beyond the scope of this book to discuss, 
but, having been introduced, and their bearing upon the 
problem indicated, they must be left for the reader to 
appreciate and consider more widely and thoroughly. 

However, many of the questions do come within our 
scope of consideration, and to them we may proceed. 

1 ' Economic pressure ' is a broad term, including more than wage 
conditions, small supply of pocket-money, and similar financial 
factors : it is the fundamental determinative factor in instances 
which abound in connection with the illegitimate child. Here the 
duty of maintenance rests solely with the mother. She can claim, 
through the police courts, a sum from the father of the child (not 
exceeding 5s. per week — or its equivalent in a lump sum)* but she 
has to pay the legal expenses in connection with the claim, besides 
having the difficulty of proving her case, often a very difficult matter 
if she cannot afford a lawyer's services and the man can. " Charity 
does nothing to help the girl who has more than one illegitimate 
child, and the children suffer with her. The Poor Law enforces her 
to remain a prisoner within the walls of the workhouse so long as her 
children are there. The only way of relieving herself of their main- 
tenance is to become a prostitute, when the Poor Law takes over the 
charge of the children." (See an article by Mrs. Cobden-Sanderson 
on " The Waifs and Strays of England,'' in the School Child, December 
1913). 



SOCIAL SAFEGUAEDING 243 

In England, the ' age of consent ' is sixteen years. 
Hence there is no legal punishment for a man who 
induces a girl of sixteen (or a girl whom he states he had 
reason to consider was sixteen at the time of the offence) 
to yield herself to him. So we find it is below this age 
that the majority of offences consist of minor sex 
interference. But even at sixteen a young girl can 
hardly be judged capable of weighing the full responsi- 
bility of her actions, especially if she has no correct 
and uplifted knowledge of the sex life. Hence it is 
greatly necessary that girls should be safeguarded in so 
far as wholesome, true information, conveyed to them in 
all reverence and tenderness, can safeguard them. 

The fear of venereal disease and the fear of possible 
pregnancy may act as deterrents in cases where the moral 
fibre alone is insufficient to support a strain. But at 
all costs, give a girl a chance, after one or even many 
lapses, to rehabilitate herself, to recover her lost position, 
to recover her self-respect : ameliorate the economic 
struggle for her that she may not be driven into the 
mire of prostitution. Society's verdict has been too 
harsh upon the woman. Boys must be brought up to 
realise that a lapse on their part is just as weak, just as 
culpable, as a lapse on a girl's part would be. There 
must be no dual standard. It is the act that counts, 
not the consequences. 

We have already discussed * some of the ways in 
which wise provision may be made in the home, the 
school, and the social life of children and girls and boys 
to aid them in leading an upright, healthy life, provision 
which is, in the main, an indirect and thoroughly valuable 
aid. A great appeal must be made to mothers to help 

1 See Chapters IV. and V. on "Care of Children " and " Supervision." 



244 SOCIAL SAFEGUARDING 

them, both to understand the needs of child-life and to 
do their best to make the most of home conditions to 
ensure a healthy, moral tone, and to mitigate against 
possible risks. Even in the family living in one or two 
rooms only, an enlightened mother can make some 
provision for privacy, and make some effort to carry 
out suggestions * tactfully and sympathetically offered. 

The question of leisure hours is a great problem. 
Where there is room for it, boys and girls should be 
encouraged to bring their friends home, and to feel 
that, in doing so, they have the sympathy and interest 
of their parents. They will not desire then, to make 
friends with any of whom their parents would dis- 
approve. Parents who, in later life, have cause to regret 
that their boys or their girls have formed undesirable 
attachments or entered into undesirable marriages, have 
often themselves to blame for not having made their 
children's friends welcome at home ; their children have 
thus sought friends and amusements beyond the ken of 
their parents, who in time, reap their toll of grief. Let 
the boys bring their girl friends and the girls their boy 
friends if they wish. Remember that it is natural for 
boys and girls to seek each other's society, and that 
it is far better to encourage a healthy comradeship, 
courtesy, and chivalry than it is to foster subterfuge, 
clandestine acquaintance, and adolescent * flirting,' by 
the unwisdom of ignoring this fact of natural sex hunger. 

The dangerous age — the years during which the first 
lapse of the majority of girls who have been prostitutes 
occurred—- is from sixteen to twenty, 2 and this fact 

1 See Chapters IV. and V. on "Careof Children" and "Supervision." 

1 See Dr. Helen Wilson's paper On Some Came* of Prostitution, 

Eleventh Congress of the International Abolitionist Federation, 1913. 



SOCIAL SAFEGUARDING 245 

suggests the great need for preventive effort being made 
on girls between sixteen and twenty. Many of the girls 
from whom the ranks of the prostitutes are recruited 
come originally from poor homes, where there was no 
opportunity — nor indeed any attraction — for them to 
meet and entertain their friends at home. So they are 
driven to seek their pleasures with their friends in the 
streets, and in such cheap amusement places as lie 
within reach of their resources. A great effort should 
be made to cultivate a taste for healthy, vigorous 
occupation of leisure hours — a taste which may be 
fostered in school as well as at home. There is great 
need for reform of social opportunities in this way. 
Let the boys and girls have their choral societies, their 
gymnastic classes, their clubs, where they may meet 
and follow up their hobbies ; let them dance if they 
want to. Dancing is a perfectly healthy amusement. 
But they cannot dance at home, therefore let reputable 
dancing-rooms be available, under the auspices of social 
organisations, dancing-rooms which are well conducted, 
which close at an early hour, where the music is spirited, 
not slow and voluptuous, and where refreshments may 
be obtained at a small cost, but where the sale and use 
of alcohol is absolutely prohibited, for we are only too 
much aware of the close connection between drink and 
loss of self-control and judgment. Let us stir up a 
vigorous social opinion which shall inspire a vigorous 
Watch Committee to supervise the cheap theatres and 
picture halls, and see that their cheapness is allied 
to purity ; to authorise the adequate lighting of parks 
and open spaces, so that the many people who would 
legitimately enjoy a walk through the parks in the 
evening of their monotonous, toil-filled day shall not be 



246 SOCIAL SAFEGUARDING 

deprived of their pleasure because the remaining few 
might use dark places for immoral purposes. 

We must face our social problems frankly. Social 
workers, teachers — in fact, all who may hope to 
wield an effective influence over the lives of boys and 
girls — are called upon to view their lives and cir- 
cumstances faithfully, and, guided by an under- 
standing of their lives, their feelings, and their needs, 
to act in ready sympathy and wise conduct. Side 
by side with this provision of social enjoyment, of 
healthy occupation of leisure hours, of cleansing and 
improving the home life, the educational factor must 
work. Through club meetings, church meetings, various 
social organisations, through continuation classes, and 
meetings of old pupils, pure, clear knowledge of sex and 
parenthood can be conveyed both to parents themselves 
and to the boys and girls. 

One might suggest, also, that short addresses given 
to factory girls and to men in large factories and work- 
places, during work hours, would be another means of 
doing good educational work, if carried on by those men 
and women who, by every gift of personality, broad- 
mindedness, tact, sympathy, faith in the innate possi- 
bilities for good of human kind, are fitted for the work. 



APPENDIX I 

Some Suggestions for Parents on how to Answer 
Childish Questions and how to Prepare 
Children for Puberal Changes 



CHILDISH QUESTIONS 

We all know how quaint and how variable the child's 
first questions concerning the origin of babies may be. 
No two children may ask exactly the same question, 
nor can we say just when it will come. If, however, 
adults are primed with a thorough knowledge of these 
things themselves, they should easily be able to put 
facts in a simple, straightforward way. An imaginary 
conversation may serve to show. 

Child : Where did you get baby, mother ? 

Mother : From the same place as I got you, dear. 

Child : Where did you get me from ? 

Mother : Listen, darling ; whose little girl are you ? 

Child : Mother's little girl. 

Mother : Yes. and who else's little girl ? 

Child : Daddy's little girl. 

Mother: Yes, darling, you are daddy's little girl, 

and mother's little girl — and you have always belonged 

to daddy and mother. Do you remember that you 

were once not so big as you are now ? You used to be 

247 



248 APPENDIX I 

a very little girl. You were so small and weak that 
you couldn't walk, you could just crawl about. And 
before that you were so small that you couldn't even 
crawl. Mother had to carry you about in her arms, 
and hold you safely there, just as she has to hold baby 
now. And when you were very little you couldn't 
eat meat and potato and use a knife and fork like you 
can now. Mother had to cut your meat up for you, 
and you ate it with a spoon. And when you were so 
small that mother had to carry you always in her arms, 
you weren't strong enough to have meat and potato 
and bread and butter at all, you could only have milk, 
just as baby does now, and mother had to make special 
milk for you just as she does for baby now. You were 
such a tiny, weak little thing. We had to keep you 
warmly wrapped up so that you did not get cold, and 
take such great care of you, for you were just like baby 
is. You couldn't do anything at all for yourself. And 
before that you were smaller still and weaker still ; in 
fact, you couldn't be out here in the world at all, so 
mother took care of you inside of herself. You lay in 
a warm little nest, just under her heart. See, just 
like this little bean lies cosily in this pod with the warm 
bean-blanket round it. You were such a wee thing. 
Once upon a time you were just as big as a speck like 
this (making a dot on paper). But you grew and you 
grew, getting bigger and stronger till at last you were 
able to come out into the world and be here with daddy 
and me — always daddy's little girl and mother's little 
girl. 

Such might be a beginning. It would probably be 
greatly interrupted by childish comments and ques- 



APPENDIX I 249 

tions : perhaps the tale would only be half told, to be 
resumed another day. 

Other incidents may crop up, giving further oppor- 
tunity : the arrival of a family of kittens, of rabbits, 
of puppies may be drawing nigh. " Take care of pussy, 
darling ; don't hurt her." 

Child: I'm not hurting her, just squeezing her. I 
love little pussy. 

Mother : Yes, darling, but you may hurt pussy now 
if you squeeze her like that. For pussy is going to 
have some little kittens soon — her babies. She is 
taking care of them, just as mother had to take care of 
you. You remember how I told you, you were just 
as small as a speck, and how you had to grow inside 
a little nest in mother's body ? Pussy's kittens begin 
as little specks too, and she has to take great care of 
them while they are growing, they are such delicate 
little things. So we must take care of pussy and see 
that nothing hurts her. 

And later : 

Child : Where is pussy ? I want pussy. 

Mother: Pussy wants to be alone, dear, now, by 
herself. She does not want anyone to go to see her. 
For her babies are coming very soon, and she wants to 
have them all to herself at first. We have made her a 
comfortable bed, and given her plenty of milk ; she will 
have all she needs till her babies are born. 

Child : How are babies born ? What is c born ' ? 

Mother : Do you remember how we put some poppy 
seeds into the garden, and how the little seeds each 
grew into a big poppy plant ? You put some sweet-pea 
seeds into your own little garden, and they grew up 
into beautiful sweet-pea plants, some with pink, some 



250 APPENDIX I 

with white, and some with purple flowers. Inside of 
each seed was a little egg which grew into a plant. 

You had some eggs of the stick insect (or silkworm, 
or some other caterpillar, etc.). Didn't they grow into 
stick insects, first very wee ones, and then they got 
bigger and bigger, and we gave them some privet leaves 
to eat ? Where does the baby bird come from ? You 
know that ! That the little bird comes out of an egg 
which the mother bird lays in a nest. The mother bird 
and father bird make a cosy nest right up in a tree or in 
a hole under the roof, somewhere out of harm's way. 
And then the mother bird puts the eggs in the nest 
and takes care of them. She tucks them under her 
body in the nest, and sits there patiently, keeping them 
warm. The father bird looks after her, brings her food 
to eat, and sings to her. And all the time, inside of its 
egg, each little bird is growing bigger and stronger, 
till one day it is big enough and strong enough to 
break open its shell and come out into the nest. 

And all baby creatures were once eggs. 

Child : Was I once an egg % Was baby once an 

egg? 

Mother : Yes, you were once a tiny speck, as I told you 
— that speck was an egg. One day such a wonderful 
thing happened ! Mother knew that a little egg had 
wakened up in a little nest inside of her, and that you 
were soon coming to us. We, father and I, were so 
happy to know you were coming. We took such a 
lot of care of you. I kept you warm and fed you 
inside the little nest, and father took care of me so that 
no harm should come to you. There you lay just under 
my heart, growing day by day. The little nest in which 
you lay had to grow too, so that you had plenty of 



APPENDIX! 251 

room. And after you had grown for nine months you 
were getting quite strong, and one day mother and 
father knew that the time was coming when you were 
coming out of the nest. Mother had to stay in bed, 
just as she had to do when baby came to us, so that 
the journey out of the nest should not harm you in any 
way. The nest lies just under mother's heart inside 
her body, and it has a wonderful passage leading from 
the nest to the outside. And when baby was strong 
enough, the passage-way opened, and he was born. 
That is what ' born ' means. 

Child : Where is the passage-way ? 

Mother : In the very safest place possible, where no 
harm is likely to come to it at all. Our body is such a 
wonderful thing. You know there are things we need 
to eat, to put into the body ; they go in at one end of 
the body, the mouth — and the things the body doesn't 
need, and the things that have to come out of the body, 
come out at the other end. So in the very safest place 
possible, just between the thighs, is the opening that 
leads from the nest, and when you are a little older, hair 
will grow all around it to protect it still more. 

Some parents have found that their children take 
exception to the nearness of the excretory openings to 
the opening concerned with birth — this difficulty will 
be avoided if children are led to view the excretory 
functions in the right way (see p. 55), and if they are 
also led to know of Nature's economy — that two openings 
are never made where one will suffice, e.g. we breathe, 
we drink, and we eat through the mouth. But just as 
there are separate tubes leading from the mouth to the 
lungs and to the stomach, so are there separate passages 



252 APPENDIX I 

connected with the one opening where the passage from 
the kidneys and the passage from the ' nest ■ (uterus) 
emerge. 

I am attempting here to show how some of the diffi- 
culties which appear intense, and which to many people 
seem insuperable, may be faced and surmounted. If 
complete confidence between parent and child is to be 
maintained, these difficulties represent questions Which 
must be faced. Some children may need little detail of 
explanation ; others have that passion for definite in- 
formation which brooks no denial. And the parent 
must realise that fact ; that if at any point information 
falls short of what the child's inquiring spirit demands, 
the child is bound to satisfy its curiosity elsewhere — 
and a link may be irreparably broken. Not only may 
a link be broken, but a shade of shame, of irreverence, 
may be cast over all that should be regarded as dignified 
and sacred. 

The parent must also remember and be consoled by 
the remembrance, that these points of information 
which have such an intensely personal interest to the 
adult, have no such deep import to the little child whose 
sexual emotions are in the latent condition. Such a 
little child is seeking information in the same matter- 
of-fact way in which it seeks all information upon 
points which its curiosity appreciates ; and while every 
device to emphasise the wonder, the beauty, and the 
sacredness of the renewal of life, and every emphasis 
of the dignity of the body should be utilised to the fullest 
purpose, the actual points concerning the body itself 
should be given briefly, clearly, and in no disguise. 

Perhaps a new baby is coming to join the family. As 
the time of its arrival draws near, let the children share 



APPENDIX I 253 

the family secret, venerating it ; let them know they 
may expect a little baby brother or sister to join them ; 
let them share in the little preparations that may have 
to be made ; see the small garments that are ready for 
the visitor ; let them know that because mother is 
taking care of the little baby before it comes to join 
the family circle, they must take every care of mother — 
carry things for her, not allow her to stand ; in many 
ways they may be allowed to feel a share in the responsi- 
bility involved. 

To children who are allowed to share in this joy of 
forecast, no wrong or shameful impressions are likely 
to come, no false ideas are likely to find a foothold, 
for by wisely-given and pure knowledge they are safe- 
guarded from evil. The promise of a new life coming 
into the world is to them a promise of joy ; it is sur- 
rounded by a halo of sacredness and of love. 



FATHERHOOD 

Steps should be taken at school and in the home to 
provide the necessary biologic approach to the subject 
of fatherhood (see Chapters VI. and VII.). Some 
children are very quick to draw conclusions and to 
apply them to human life ; others are exceedingly 
slow to apply. Consequently the parents may find 
much has to be explained and re-explained — or, very 
little may be needed to make things clear to the child. 
It is better that the physical facts of fatherhood should 
be explained in the later years of childhood rather than 
be left till puberty arrives (see Chapter VI.). 

" You have been learning at school how seeds are 
made — you know that seeds are really plant-babies ; 



254 APPENDIX I 

that each little seed may grow up into a full-grown plant. 
You will remember how the eggs lay in the ovary (seed- 
box) and how each egg had to be joined to a sperm before 
it could be a seed. You have seen bees and butterflies 
carrying the sperms from one flower to another, as 
they visited the flowers for honey ; or you have 
seen the hazels in the spring-time shaking in the wind : 
how the wind carries the sperms about so that some of 
them fall on the tops of the ovary and make their way 
down to the eggs in the seed-box. And you know it 
takes the two, the sperm and the egg, to make a seed, 
so that a new plant life may be started. 

" Then you know how in the animals the same tale 
is told (see Chapters VI. and VII.). An egg and a 
sperm have to join, and so the new creature begins to 
live. In the mother bird's body, for example, eggs grow, 
and in the father bird's body sperms grow. You know 
that the eggs are produced in the ovary and the sperms 
in the testes (spermary). When the breeding-season 
comes, the birds go in pairs. The male presses his body 
close to the female's, and the sperms pass quickly from 
his body into the opening in hers, and make their way 
up towards the eggs, and several eggs are fertilised. 
When the nest is ready, these pass out of the female's 
body into the nest. You know how the mother bird 
remains on the eggs, keeping them warm and turning 
them day by day, and all during this period of ' in- 
cubation,' as it is called, the little ' chicken spot ' 
within the egg is growing into a chicken, which at last 
gets big enough to break open its shell. Many of the 
chicks are very helpless. The mother and the father 
birds have to look after them for a considerable time, 
to give them plenty to eat, and to keep them warm — 



APPENDIX I 255 

and, when their feathers and their wings are strong, 
to teach them how to fly. The birds take great oare 
of their babies. 

" And so it is in human life. People take ever so much 
more care of their babies than birds do. You know 
how a little baby grows within its mother's body for 
nine months before it comes out into the world, and how 
it was, in the beginning, a small egg. But before the 
egg could grow into a baby it had to be joined to a 
sperm. And so you see how it is I told you, when we were 
talking about babies some time ago, you were mother's 
little girl (or boy) and daddy's little girl, and that you 
had always belonged to daddy and to mother, for not 
only have we both cared for you and nursed you and 
provided clothes for you and loved you in every way, 
but we both helped to create you. You will perhaps 
see now why it is people live in ' families ' — father, 
mother, and children— the children were brought into 
the world by, and belong to, both father and mother, 
so it is right and natural that father, mother, and their 
little ones should all live together, sharing happiness and 
sharing troubles, and all loving one another. For it was 
because father and mother loved one another that they 
married, so that they could bring more love into the 
world. When the little children come, father and mother 
are happier than ever, and love one another more than 
ever, because their hearts are opened wide to receive the 
love of a little child, and to shower their own love upon 
their baby. 

" And now you will want to know how it all comes 
about. You know that eggs are developed in ovaries. 
You saw them in the tulip. In a woman's body there 
are two ovaries. 



256 APPENDIX I 

11 You know that sperms are made in spermaries. You 
saw them in the tulip also as little pollen grains. In a 
man's body are two spermaries — at least they are part 
of his body, just like your ear-lobes are. They are 
enclosed in a small bag of skin, which sticks out like 
our ears do. You remember how the opening to the 
1 nest ■ is placed in the very safest possible place ? 
So it is with these very delicate organs. They are in 
the same position in a man's body as the 'nest' 
opening is in a woman's — the safest possible place. 
There is a tube leading from the spermaries down which 
the sperms pass. It is the same tube down which the 
water which the body has no further use for, passes. 
It may be used for either purpose, for you know Nature 
never makes two things where one will do. And by 
means of this tube, the sperms are placed into the 
passage-way, which leads, as you know, to the nest; 
If a sperm and an egg meet, they join, and a little 
baby's life begins." 

The foregoing explanation is a suggestion for the way 
in which the process of sex intercourse may be explained 
to children (being adapted for boys and girls accordingly). 
This explanation should come in the later years of 
childhood, and the trend of emphasis should be towards 
the fact that these processes concern adults only, men 
and women who have married, and whose joy and 
love are to be completed by children. As time goes on, 
and youthhood draws nigh, further confidential talk 
will give the tender parent many chances of fostering 
an ideal of love and of conduct. It would be super- 
fluous, however, to enlarge here upon this subject ; it 
has already been treated in the main part of the 
book. 



APPENDIX I 257 

TO GIBLS OF TWELVE YEARS OF AGE (APPROXIMATELY) 

—forewarning re puberty (see Chapters II. 
and III.) 

One would offer, as a word of advice, that any attempt 
to forewarn boys and girls about the puberal changes 
should be allowed to arise relevantly to some circum- 
stance or conversation. Such a talk must come gently 
and naturally to be valuable, to be received respon- 
sively by the child. Any harshness or severity, or any 
suggestion of it being a lecture or a ' jaw,' will effectually 
shut jbhe child's mind and heart against inspiration. 
Plenty of opportunities arise in everyday family life, 
if the parents will only be wise enough to seize them, or 
to pave the way unobtrusively. 

" You know, dear, from our talks, how babies come 
into the world, and what a great joy it is to a mother 
when she has her baby in her arms. She has had to 
take great care of the little one for a long time before it 
arrived, and often to give up pleasures which, had she 
accepted them, might have hurt her baby. But she 
was glad to give them up, in order that her baby might 
be safe. Motherhood brings great joy and often great 
pain, and it is such a great thing to accomplish, that a 
woman's body has to prepare for it a long time before- 
hand. 

" In a girl's body, as in a mother's body, there is a 
* nest ' (we call this nest the ' uterus ? or ' womb '), 
but the nest is smaller in the girl's body. When she 
is about thirteen or fourteen it begins to grow, and 
comes to be about 3 inches long, and shaped like a pear. 
It is low down in the centre of the body, above the 
entrance to the passage-way. And in the girl's body, 
17 



258 APPENDIX I 

as in the mother's body, there are two ovaries in which 
the ' ova ' (eggs) form. But in the little girl these 
ova are asleep, and stay in the ovaries, and only when 
she is about thirteen or fourteen do they begin to wake 
up, and come, one every four weeks, away from the 
ovary, down a small fine tube and into the nest (uterus), 
and then it finds its way out of the body without the 
girl knowing anything about it, it is so small. For the 
time has not come for it to be used. 

" Whena girl is grown up into a woman, and is married, 
it may be that an egg will be fertilised, and has to stay 
in the uterus to grow. Now you know that if you 
want to do anything well you have to practise it many 
times : you play your scales over and over again till 
you get them perfect ; when you first learnt to knit, 
you were very slow, and found it difficult, but now 
that you have practised it a lot, you can knit quite 
well and easily. And so it is with the body. When 
you were very little you had to learn, slowly and awk- 
wardly, to walk. But you walk quite easily now, with- 
out ever thinking about it ! So it is with everything 
the body does. Long before it is ever needed, the 
ovaries and the uterus have to rehearse their work. 
Every four weeks, therefore, an egg leaves an ovary — 
every four weeks, therefore, the uterus has to be ready 
to receive it. If it were going to stay in the uterus, 
it would have to be nourished there. You know that 
everything we eat goes to build up our bodies and to make 
us work, and you know that all the food we eat has to 
be changed into our blood before it can be of any use 
to us. You know that the little baby grows inside of 
the nest within its mother's body, and that it must be 
fed, if it is to grow. And so some of her blood goes to 



APPENDIX I 259 

the little growing baby in the nest and feeds it. as it is 
fixed to the wall of the nest. 

" And so, you see, every four weeks the walls of the 
uterus have to get ready to receive an egg. The walls 
become flushed with blood gradually collecting there. 
Now if the girl were a grown woman, and were married, 
and the egg were going to grow into a baby, that blood 
would be needed for the baby, but when it is not needed 
in this way, it just breaks its way through the wall and 
oozes out, coming away down the passage from the 
uterus and out of the body altogether, in the way that 
other things which the body doesn't need, come away. 
So if some day, you find some spots of blood on your 
clothing, don't be alarmed about it ; it is quite all 
right. But come straight to tell me, and I'll tell 
you w r hat to do, to help the uterus to- do its work 
properly." 

For Hygiene of Menstruation see Appendix II. 

MODESTY AND RESERVE 

" God made the world and all that therein is. He made 
man and woman and all living creatures and plants. 
He created Life, and He gave to each creature some of 
Uta own power — He gave them the power to pass on 
the Life He had implanted. 

'' And just because in each boy's and each girl's body 
there is the power to pass on life, each boy should 
regard his body as sacred, and each girl should know 
that her body is holy. No part of it should ever be 
ill-treated or misused, or touched, except to keep it 
clean. And this God-given power that we all possess 
should never be talked about to anyone except to those 



260 APPENDIX I 

whom we hold nearest and dearest — only to father 
and mother. Little girls who talk to one another 
about the way in which babies come into the world, 
or about the way in which the uterus does its work, 
have not been taught about these things in the way 
you have ; they don't understand how wonderful and 
how grand it is ! Boys who talk and chatter freely 
about these things also do not look at life in the right 
way. They have not been taught to regard their power 
as sacred. But you, who understand it all, and know 
that these subjects should only be in our deepest, 
holiest thoughts, will not listen to such talk. 

" Every boy and every girl should take great care of 
these organs which have such important work to do, 
never to touch them except to keep them clean ; never 
to allow anyone to touch them nor to talk about them. 
For every boy wants to be a big, strong man, and every 
girl a fine woman — and it greatly depends upon the 
health of these organs as to what kind of man or woman 
the boy or girl will be. 

" It is quite possible that things may happen which 
you don't understand, and are anxious to know about. 
Always come to mother or father if you are in any 
difficulty ; we will tell you all you want to know." 

FOREWARNING BOYS ABOUT THE PUBERAL CHANGES 

(see Chapter II.) and to put them on their 

GUARD AGAINST TEMPTATION TO SEX MALPRACTICE 

(see Chapter IV.) 

Parent : How old are you to-day ? 

Son : Twelve. 

Parent: You are getting on, quite a big fellow. 



APPENDIX I 261 

Getting to be a man soon ! By the way, I ought to tell 
you something about being a man. You remember how 
we have talked about men and women being trustees of 
life — how they each have to do their share in bringing 
new lives into the world ? And you will remember 
that the racial organs have this work entrusted to them. 
Your racial organs are practically asleep at present, 
but when you are about thirteen or perhaps fourteen 
they will begin to waken up. You will probably come 
to know this. The tube through which the waste water 
comes away from the body is, as you know, the tube 
through which the sperms pass also. When the racial 
organs wake up and begin to produce sperms, this 
tube swells and projects. It will do this quite suddenly, 
and a little milky fluid will be expelled. This milky 
fluid contains sperms ; it is called * semen/ Probably 
you have already had curious feelings in this organ ; 
they will become stronger. Don't be alarmed when 
this action of the penis takes place. It is perfectly 
natural and right. You will understand more about 
it later on. 

Your voice will begin to * break,' to go low and deep, 
when the racial organs begin to be active. That is 
one of the signs that a boy is beginning to be a man. 
You will probably notice that hair will begin to grow 
on your face and round the racial organs. Another 
sign is that i semen ' comes away from the testicles ; 
it is a very valuable fluid, and is stored in two little 
reservoirs. Most of it is absorbed by the body, 
and it is only when there is more collected in the 
reservoirs than the body needs that it comes away 
as an i emission/ of which I have just told you. Of 
course you will see that it ij very important to a 



262 APPENDIX 1 

fellow's health that he does nothing to waste this fluid, 
or to make it come away more than it does naturally. 
For, the body, to release this fluid, requires a certain 
amount of nervous energy, and that means a certain 
fatigue or tiredness follows. So if its release is brought 
about more frequently than the body naturally liberates 
it, there is an unnatural demand made upon the nervous 
energy — and no fellow who wants to grow up into a 
fine, capable man, and to come out top of the tree, 
can afford to waste or misdirect any nervous energy. 
In the ordinary way the excess will leave the body 
once a week or once a fortnight. If it happens more 
than that, let me know. You may possibly find that 
many of your friends have not had all these things 
properly explained to them like you have, and they 
may talk about them in such a way that you will feel 
is wrong and unclean. They may do things which will 
lead them to waste the semen, handle the racial organs 
in ways which excite them ; they may tempt you to 
do so also. But just take no notice of these temptations. 
Remember the great trust that is given to a man, how 
he is the guardian of children-to-be ; remember also 
that if a boy wishes to be a fine, strong, capable man he 
must on no account waste the semen. When he marries 
the woman he loves, then is the time for him to use it 
to help her to bring children into the world, but till 
then he has every need of it himself. Some boys and 
perhaps men may give you a bad time, urging you to 
do things which will be wrong, and even some women 
may tempt you. I am telling you these things because 
you are getting to be a man, and it is right that you 
should know. If you have any difficulties — and you 
may have, for it's not always plain sailing — remember 



APPENDIX I 263 

that no matter what else you hear, all I have told is 
right ; and if there's anything you don't understand, 
or anything you want to know further, just ask mother 
or father about it ; or if you are away from home and 
can't ask us, go to a good doctor or your headmaster 
at school. 



APPENDIX II 

Special Hygiene for Girls 

For some time previous to the first menstrual period, 
in addition to the general signs of the approach of 
puberty (see Chapter II.), various symptoms may 
manifest its approach — pain in the back, breasts, 
loins, abdomen ; lassitude ; sometimes slight sickness 
or giddiness ; headaches, etc. A girl should rest 
during this pre-puberal period, if these or similar 
symptoms prevail ; above all, she should be re- 
lieved of any mental or physical strain, for men- 
struation is a function which is of such extreme 
importance to the healtn of girlhood and womanhood 
that every care should be taken to effect its right 
establishment. 

Immediately before, during, and after the period, a 
girl should refrain from vigorous exercise ; cycling, 
tennis, riding, hockey, and similar exercise should be 
given up for the few days. Gentle exercise in the open 
air, walking, for example, will be beneficial. Mental 
work should be lightened as much as possible for the few 
day3. Tight clothing is always unhygienic, and more 
particularly so at this time, when the abdomen is in a 
condition of congestion ; it may be largely responsible for 
discomfort and pain attendant upon the period, as well 

as for irregularity. Eegularity of bathing is important. 

364 



APPENDIX II 265 

A warm sponge bath daily, thoroughly cleansing all 
parts, is very necessary. Painful menstruation may 
often be caused by constipation (the overloaded rectum 
exerting undue pressure upon the congested racial 
organs), and relief is obtained by taking an aperient 
the day before the period is due to begin ; indeed, even 
in absence of any definite symptoms of constipation, 
an aperient is often a corrective of irregular and 
painful menstruation. Belief may also be obtained by 
soaking the feet in hot water the night before and each 
night during the period, or by taking a hot bath before 
the period. Hot baths during the period are sometimes 
advised. In all cases of bathing, care must be taken to 
avoid a chill. 

Anaemia, physical overstrain, mental overwork, 
hysteria, chills, indigestion leading to impure condition 
of the blood, self -abuse, faulty pose in sitting or standing, 
leading to unequal pressure on the nerves and vessels 
supplying the sex organs, are some of the conditions 
which may be associated with painful menstruation, 
and every care should be taken to prevent these con- 
ditions of ill-health arising. Any attempt to remedy 
painful menstruation, however, must necessarily be 
based upon a knowledge of the cause, which is frequently 
difficult to determine 2 — and unless a temporary condi- 
tion of ill-health may be recognised as being associated 
with a temporarily disordered condition of menstrua- 
tion, medical advice on the subject should be 
sought. 

Rest in bed during the first two days if the period 
is attended by pain and discomfort is often beneficial 
towards bringing about a healthier condition. Hot 
drinks, non-alcoholic, are good ; but in no case should 



266 APPENDIX II 

alcoholic beverages or drugs be resorted to — they weaken 
the system, they tend to bring about a debilitating 
reaction, and, moreover, in this way have been sown 
the seeds of a drink-taking or drug-taking habit. 

Profuse menstruation also may be the outcome of 
bodily or mental disorders. Eest of mind, freedom from 
sensual thoughts, and rest of body, again are necessary. 
When lying flat down, the feet should be raised slightly 
on a cushion, to be at a higher level than the rest of 
the body. 

During the first year, the occurrence of the flow may 
be irregular, but, if the general health is good, this will 
right itself. Later, suppression of the flow may be due 
to anaemia, to overwork, to anxiety, and some other con- 
ditions which medical diagnosis would identify — in addi- 
tion, of course, to its being the usual sign of pregnancy. 
In case of anaemia being the cause, plenty of fresh air, 
good, nutritious food, plenty of fruit, early hours, relief 
from mental strain, freedom from constipation, are all 
essential to achieve cure. Very often a tonic may be 
needed, and this should be taken under medical direction. 
Absorbent sanitary towels should be worn, easily 
detachable from a waist-belt, and changed several 
times a day, in the interests of personal comfort and 
cleanliness. Cheap ones, of absorbent cotton, should 
be burnt immediately after use. Washable ones of 
soft diaper or Turkish towelling should be soaked in 
soda and cold water before laundering. 

Menstruation is a natural function of the female 
human body, and should therefore be carried out with 
as little discomfort and pain as any other of the body 
functionings. If the digestive system becomes dis- 
organised in its working, and unhealthy, then it forces 



APPENDIX II 267 

its condition upon the consciousness. But in a perfectly- 
healthy condition of the digestive system, beyond the 
necessity for periodical discharge of useless and waste 
material, there is no claim made upon the consciousness. 
And so it should be with the menstrual function. Just 
as we educate the digestive system in the way it should 
go, by providing suitable food in infancy, childhood, 
and by training in correct physiological habit, so is it 
necessary to exercise intelligent supervision over the 
physiological training of the menstrual system in its 
early days of activity, always bearing in mind that 
general hygienic principles of living (fresh air, night 
and day, regular exercise and sleep, good food, loose 
clothing, personal cleanliness, healthy mind, and so on) 
aid towards health in the performance of this and all 
functions of the body. 



APPENDIX III 

Physiology of Human Reproduction 

The racial organs are chiefly confined to the pelvic 
region. The female pelvis is broader in proportion 
and wider from back to front than that of the male ; 
it is not so deep ; the bones are slenderer and of lighter 
formation. 

The principal female organs are the two ovaries 
(producing ova), the two corresponding oviducts 
(Fallopian tubes), the uterus (womb), the vagina ; 
these are all to be found within the pelvic basin. The 
mammary glands (breasts) are situated on the chest 
wall. 

The ovaries are small egg-shaped glands, the size of 
a pigeon's egg, situated one on each side of the pelvis, 
well within the lower and front part of the pelvic basin, 
about 4 inches below the iliac crest and about 2i inches 
apart. These glands contain a large number of vesicles, 
the Graafian follicles ; in the interior of each follicle 
an ovum develops. When an ovum is mature, the 
follicle ruptures ; the ovum is so released from the ovary. 
The occurrence of the first menstruation is usually 
recognised as the indication that ovulation (i.e. the 
release of an ovum) has begun. In the ordinary way, 
one ovum is matured and released from the ovary every 

four weeks. 

268 



APPENDIX III 



269 



This ovum (y^ to ^^ inch in diameter) is 
directed into the oviduct, and thence is passed along to • 
the uterus. The oviducts are fine sinuous tubes 
about 3 or 4 inches long. They are lined with ciliated 
membrane, and enter, one on each side, the uterus 
(womb). 

The uterus is a small, pear-shaped organ, the wider 




Female Organs of Generation. (Diagrammatic.) 

U, Uterus (womb) showing the cavity. V, Canal leading to uterus. 
0, Ovary. L, L, Ligaments, holding the organs in position. 
F.T., Oviduct (very narrow tubes). F, Fringed opening of 
oviduct which receives the ova liberated from the ovary. 

part being uppermost. It is situated in the central 
basal part of the pelvic basin, between the bladder 
which is in front and the rectum which is behind. Its 
walls are thick and muscular and highly vascular. It 
is about 3 inches long, and 2 inches wide in its widest 
part {i.e. where the oviducts join it). The internal 
cavity i§ very small in comparison with the external 



270 APPENDIX III 

dimensions, owing to the thickness of the muscular 
wall. The ovaries and the uterus are supported in the 
pelvic basin by sets of ligaments, which, however, in 
the case of girls and women of weakened ligamental 
power, sometimes fail to maintain the uterus in its 
normal position, and through any slight strain this organ 
may tend to fall out of position. 

The neck of the uterus projects into the vagina, the 
canal which opens at the surface of the body just below 
the opening of the ureter. The vagina is lined with 
ciliated mucous membrane, similar to that which lines 
the respiratory tubes. Its wall is normally collapsed 
like that of the gullet when in the quiescent condition, 
though, like the wall of the uterus, it is capable of great 
expansion. Its entrance is generally guarded by a 
fold of mucous membrane, the hymen. 

Two folds of skin (the labia majora and labia minora) 
surround the external orifices of the uiethra and the 
vagina, the outer fold, after puberty, becoming covered 
with hair. The inner lining of these folds is mucous in 
nature. 

Just above the urethra is a small tubercle of highly 
nervous constitution ; this is the clitoris. 

In the uterus, as well as in the ovaries, changes take 
place at four-weekly intervals ; a gradual, increased 
flow of blood towards the organ culminates in an out- 
flow of blood from the inner wall, together with a 
release of the inner lining of the organ, and a consequent 
renewal of that lining. This periodic discharge from 
the walls of the uterus is known as menstruation. 

The mammary glands (mammae) consist of two lobes 
of glandular tissue, one on each side of the chest. The 
work of this glandular tissue is to secrete from the 



APPENDIX III 



271 



blood the constituents of human milk, and this fluid 
is collected up by a series of ducts, which all converge 
to the nipple, thence to discharge their contents. 
It is only, however, after the stimulus provided 
by fertilisation that the mammary glands adopt 
this milk - producing 
function, and usually 
only after parturition 
that they are ready to 
release their secretion. 

The essential male 
organs consist of two 
testes (or testicles), a 
tube leading from each, 
two reservoirs (seminal 
vesicles), the ejacula- 
tory duct, and certain 
other appendages. The 
testicles are the sexual 
glands, each consisting 
of about 800 coiled 
tubules whose repro- Male organs of generation. 

ductive function is to (Diagrammatic.) 

Secrete semen, an albu- B, Bladder. R, Seminal vesicle. D, 
minous fluid of mixed Vas deferens passing circuitously 

, ., , . t • -i from the testicle to join the duct 

constitution in which f , . TT TT 

from seminal reservoir. U, Ure- 

float myriads of Strongly thra. T, Testicle. R, D, and T 

motile Spermatozoids are paired. 

(each a nuclear mass, T -$-<y inch in size, and provided 
with a vibratile protoplasmic cilium). Both the male 
and female sexual glands, it will be remembered, pro- 
duce, in addition to the racial elements, the specific 
internal secretion which provides stimulus for the 




272 APPENDIX III 

development of the secondary sexual characters and 
which exerts so great an influence upon the mental 
and physical condition of the body. 

The spermatic fluid finds its way from the testicles 
along a tube, the first part of which is coiled intricately, 
the latter part (vas deferens) uncoiled, and is stored 
in the seminal vesicle. 

During embryological development, the male racial 
organs (except the two reservoirs and their ducts) 
become extruded from the pelvic cavity, and are en- 
closed in a skin called the scrotum. 

The seminal vesicles lie within the pelvis just beneath 
the bladder. The duct of the seminal vesicle joins the 
duct from the testicles, and thence the last portion of 
this duct (known as the ejaculatory duct) joins the 
urethra. This tube being thus of double function is 
enclosed in a muscular sheath (the penis), very nervous, 
and provided with erectile tissue, which, under stimulus, 
becomes highly vascular and distended, leading to the 
discharge of spermatic fluid. The penis may be re- 
garded as a special feature of mammalian anatomy, as an 
elaborate evolutionary accomplishment which has played 
an important part in the securing of the species against 
risk of non-fertilisation, thus making for the perpetua- 
tion of the race. By means of it, the spermatic fluid is 
introduced into the vagina, and the spermatozoids, 
being capable of rapid movement, make their way into 
the uterus and possibly to the oviduct. 

In the ordinary condition of ovulation, the ovum, 
finds its way down the oviduct, thence into the uterus, 
and, being exceedingly minute, is lost. But if, in its 
journey down the oviduct and through the uterus, it 
comes in contact with and is united with a sperm, i.e. 



APPENDIX III 273 

is fertilised, it fixes itself in a fold of the uterine wall ; 
soon round it, develops a double membrane, and from 
the moment of conception (fertilisation) a new life has 
begun. 

A fluid forms between the two membranes, and 
also within the inner one, the embryo being thus pro- 
tected from injury. The point of fixation of the em- 
bryo to the uterine wall, at first obtained by the pro- 
jection of cilia from the ovum into the wall tissue, 
becomes increased in area, thickened and vascularised, 
and is then known as the * placenta ' ; through it, by 
means of the navel cord, the embryo is brought into 
vascular connection (afferent and efferent) with the 
maternal blood-stream. Once conception has occurred, 
the maternal body adjusts itself to the changed con- 
dition, meeting the new demands upon its physiological 
functioning. Menstruation usually ceases, and con- 
tinues in abeyance till after the period of lactation. 

During the nine months that follow conception, a 
steady development of the new life takes place. By 
the end of the first month, the embryo may be nearly half 
an inch long, and is in a curved position ; the head is 
distinguished, very large in proportion. Growth goes on 
apace, the various body systems becoming differentiated 
and partly functional. During the fifth month, muscular 
development has proceeded to such an extent that the 
1 foetus ' (as it is generally called after the fifth month) 
has sufficient muscular power to perform small move- 
ments : this is the sign known as ' quickening.' From 
this time, growth in size and in elaboration follows 
regularly, and during the ninth and final month of 
prenatal life, the body is becoming prepared for an 
independent existence. 
18 



274 APPENDIX III 

Parturition (birth) is brought about by contraction 
of the walls of the uterus ( f labour ') forcing the foetus 
down into the vagina, thence out from the body. The 
vascular connection between the foetus and the placenta 
is still maintained and has to be carefully severed. 
The double membrane, which has, all during the period 
of gestation, envebped the embryo (and its later con- 
dition, the foetus), ruptures, and after birth has occurred, 
the membranes, placenta, and vascular cord, now useless, 
are expelled from the uterus as the ' after-birth.' The 
uterus, which has enlarged gradually to accommodate 
the growing embryo, speedily shrinks to practically 
its normal size. With the wonderful adaptability of 
young creatures, the little baby meets its new conditions 
of life — change of nutrition, variable temperature, 
change of covering, and all the many altered conditions 
which its new environment imposes, and which must 
be a great test of endurance and vitality, in spite of all 
that mother-love may do to mitigate the severity. 1 

1 Woman and Marriage, by Margaret Stephens (Fisher Unwin, 
3s. Gd.), is a simple handbook, in many way3 very useful. 



APPENDIX IV 

Care of Animals — And Some Notes on Plant Life 
referred to in the text 

care of rats 



Rats require a large, airy house containing a sleeping 
compartment, and providing space for exercise. A 




A Rat Home. 

large box may be fronted with wire netting, and a door 
arranged at one end, or the front may be arranged to 
open. The bedroom should be small — they do not 
like a large bedroom — and a simple way to arrange 
it, is to fasten within the large box, in one corner, a 

small box, perhaps about 6 inches each way, a small 

2 75 



276 APPENDIX IV 

hole being cut out of one side of it. This little box 
should be either hung on nails or supported so that it is 
easily lifted out and cleaned. 

The floor of the house may be strewn with sand or 
sawdust (they seem to prefer sawdust) ; paper shavings 
may be put on the floor, and these the rats will quickly 
carry up to the bedroom ; a simple ladder or a small 
branch may be arranged from the floor leading up to the 
bedroom if necessary. 

Food. — Bread and milk about three times a week, 
not more frequently than this — bones occasionally 
to pick at, dog biscuit, hard bread at any time ; 
fresh water, occasional cubes of sugar, a little apple, 
large seed (parrot seed, wheat, barely, maize), pea- 
nuts, etc. 

Rats often suffer from " rough ears " ; a good remedy 
is sulphur ointment. 

They make delightful pets, become very tame, and 
are exceedingly energetic. They enjoy, in the summer- 
time, exercise on a lawn. Their habits are interesting 
to study ; the way in which they wash and keep their 
whiskers clean ; the way in which they feed, sitting on 
their hind legs, holding their food in their front paws 
and nibbling ; the way in which they drink, balanced 
on their hind legs on the drinking vessel, and scooping 
up the liquid with their paws. 

They are interesting to study as examples of verte- 
brate structure, and one would suggest, for lines of 
inquiry, the following points : 

What is the use of the whiskers ? What is the advan- 
tage of the difference in length of hind and front legs ? 
The study of the coat, the different lands of fur to be 
found there and their uses. The study of the way in 



APPENDIX IV 277 

which the rat moves. Why does it keep its tail out 
stiff when it is running ? The way in which a rat 
climbs, how it maintains its balance. Can it walk 
along a horizontal rope ? The comparison of the rat — 

(a) With the mouse. 

(b) „ „ guinea-pig. 

(c) „ „ squirrel. 

(d) ,, „ rabbit. 

Their points of common resemblance lead to their 
classification as rodents, or gnawing animals. 

Tame albino or ' hooded ' (i.e. white, with dark brown 
head, back streak, and eyes) rats may be bought from 
dealers at fourpence to sixpence each. The sexes 
resemble one another in general appearance : the male, 
however, shows a slight swelling between the anus and 
the opening of the racial organs, and a greater distance 
between the two apertures than does the female. They 
are very prolific, usually having as many as ten at a 
litter, the period of gestation being about thirty days, 
though sometimes apparently less. The young are born 
without any hair, with their eyes closed, and are very 
helpless at first. Their eyes open by the time they are 
about fourteen or fifteen days old, but before this their 
fur has begun to develop, and they begin to be slightly 
independent, learning to walk and crawl and clean their 
whiskers. They ' cut their teeth ' when they are 
thirteen or fourteen days old. 

Mice may be kept and reared in ways similar to rats, 
the great difficulty, however, being that they tend 
to produce a strong smell. This is to be lessened, 
however, by supplying them with light food, and milk 
and water instead of pure milk, and their homes 



278 



APPENDIX IV 



must be kept very clean and well aired. They are very 

fond of canary 
seed. 

Wheel-cages for 
mice are not at 
all desirable, as 
•*. they impose ab- 
>§ solute cruelty 
S> upon the little 
'g creatures, forcing 
* them to perform 
g on the tread- 
's mill. 

The period of 
gestation in mice 
is about twenty- 
one days, and the 
female should not 
be disturbed when 




. & 

w o 

w I 

5 § 

* .a 

s ^ 

° -I she is about to 
jj> have a litter, nor 
g within a short 
time after. 

Sometimes the 

§ males tend to be 

|° rather ferocious 

I and attack the 

00 young ones, so 

it is wise, as 

a precaution, to 

separate the males 

into another house 

for the time being. 



| 

o 
bC 



APPENDIX IV 279 



GUINEA-PIGS 



Home. — Two boxes may be used, about 2 ft. x If ft. x 
If ft. each. One box is divided into a sleeping-compart- 
ment and day-compartment, the former being narrow 
and leading by an opening into the latter. The front 
of the day-compartment should be composed of wire 
netting. The other box is used as a garden, and the roof 
and two, or three, sides should be replaced by wirenetting. 
A door leads from the day-compartment to the garden. 

This garden should be turfed, and as guinea-pigs 
are exceedingly fond of grass, it will be found that the 
turf needs renewing frequently. The day-room should 
be sprinkled with sawdust, and the sleeping-compart- 
ment with hay. 

Food. — They like pretty much the same food as 
rabbits do : plenty of green stuff, and they specially 
prefer grass, cabbage, lettuce, and radish-tops. One 
hot meal a day either of boiled potato or bread and 
milk or bran-mash ; oats and dry bread. Two meals 
a day are usually sufficient. 

The ' garden ' box gives them a certain amount of 
scope for exercise, but they should also be given oppor- 
tunity of having a run every day ; if they are allowed 
to have this in a garden, it should be remembered that 
they are often difficult to catch again. 

The male and female may be kept together con- 
stantly, as the male is not ferocious, and does not attack 
the young as so often the male rabbit does. 

The period of gestation is eight or nine weeks, and 
the mother, towards the end of the time, should 
have care ; hot food always, and bed of hay. The 
young are born fully developed, with their hairy coat 



280 APPENDIX IV 

quite thick, eyes open, and with their teeth well through. 
The mother provides them with milk for about one or 
two weeks, but they are very precocious little creatures, 
and make very early attempts to feed themselves and 
to walk about the hutch. 

It is sometimes noticed that the father shows great 
interest and care for the young ones, and is particularly 
attentive to them while the mother has her meals of 
bread and milk. 

Guinea-pigs are nice little pets, although they have 
not the intelligence and extreme activity which make 
the rats so fascinating. 

Guinea-pigs may be bought for about ninepence each. 

dormice 

The Dormouse is not a real € mouse ' ; but is more 
nearly allied to the squirrel. It is slightly larger than the 
Domestic Mouse, has much larger eyes, which are very 
black ; its coat is a foxy red, and its tail, different from 
that of the mouse and rat, is very furry. 

A pair of dormice are nice little pets to keep * ; 
they are very pretty, and though they are very nervous 
and easily startled, they may be tamed. 

They need an airy box, one side being replaced by 
wire netting, or some similarly arranged cage, and it 
should be provided with a sleeping-compartment, which 
they reach through a small opening. Within this a 
little horsehair tuft or down and dried moss may be 
put, and they weave it into a sort of nest. 

For food they like corn, seed, parrot seed, nuts 
(cracked if the shell is hard), small pieces of apple. 

As the winter draws on, they go into hibernation, 
1 Price in cage usually from 2s. 6d. to 3s. per pair. 



APPENDIX IV 



281 



retiring into the nest, and frequently storing up in it 
a little heap of seeds, with which they regale themselves 
should they waken temporarily during the winter. By 
keeping them in a warm temperature, however, the period 
of hibernation may be shortened or even omitted. 

They are most active at night-time and in the dark. 
They breed in captivity, the young having greyish fur 
instead of reddish-brown. When they are in hibernation, 
they should be kept in a cold room and should not be 
awakened, as they are apt, when so aroused, to be killed. 

THE FEEDING OF BIRDS 

In winter-time, when the berries are few and when the 
ground is often hard, many of the birds are likely to be 
short of food and seek for supplies other than those 
upon which they usually feed. It is always possible 
to attract quite a variety of birds to our houses and play- 
grounds by constantly and regularly providing food for 
them. The following food mixture, sprinkled upon 
window-sills, placed upon a bird table, or upon a shelf, 
yields food for seed-eaters (e.g. sparrows, chaffinches), 
grub-eaters (e.g. starlings, thrushes), and, in fact, for 
most of the birds who are with us during the whole 
year round. The insect-eaters, as a rule, are here just 
during the summer months. 





Parts. 


White bread (dried and crumbled) 
Meat (dried and cut up into small pieces] 
Hemp . 


3 

1 . 2 

. 4 or 5 


Crushed hemp 
Maw . 


2 

2 


Millet (white) . 
Oats , 


2 
1 



282 APPENDIX IV 



Sunflower seeds . 
Ants' eggs 

Dried berries (e.g. elder) 
Fat (suet, etc.) 



This mixture may, of course, be simplified considerably, 
but, as given above, provides food for a large variety 
of birds. 

Of course, if it is not possible to provide so elaborate 
a mixture, more simple means of feeding the birds may 
be employed. Sparrows will eat dry bread, preferably 
hard. Starlings and tits enjoy old fat, bits of meat, 
bones with some shreds of meat and fat still adhering. 
A cabbage-net filled with suet, old fat, meat, etc., and 
hung upon a railing or a tree is a great source of joy to 
many of the birds ; so also is a cocoa-nut split either 
in half or with the two ends opened sufficiently to admit 
of the entry of tits and sparrows and hung on a tree, 
a pole, or railing. * When the white c meat ' is eaten the 
empty shell may be used to hold seed, bread, meat, etc. 

One might suggest that children in country schools 
would be greatly interested to collect during summer 
and autumn, the fruits and seeds of wild flowers and store 
them for the feeding the birds in the winter. Thistle- 
down is a great favourite with finches. 

One might also suggest that in the ' handwork ' 
classes at school, varieties of food-trays, bird-tables, 
food-sticks, and of nesting-boxes might be made by the 
older scholars. The Brent Valley Bird Sanctuary 
Committee x has some very good designs ; a little 

1 For price list apply to the Honorary Secretary of the Brent Valley 
Bird Sanctuary Committee, Odstock, Hanwell, London, W. 



APPENDIX IV 



283 



book on How to Attract and Preserve Wild Birds, pub- 
lished by Witherby & Co., London, is full of useful 
suggestions. The Royal Society for the Protection of 
Birds, 23 Queen Anne's Gate, London, S.W., also in- 
vites application for particulars of the nesting-boxes, 
food-trays, etc., which they recommend. 

THE REARING OF FROGS AND TOADS 

Toads may better be kept in captivity than frogs, 
unless plenty of scope for exercise is given, for frogs 




An easily-constructed Vivarium. 

are much more active than toads and require much more 
room for jumping. 

A suitable vivarium may be made out of a large 
wooden box, part of each end being replaced by per- 
forated zinc to allow of ventilation ; the top or side 
replaced by a sheet of glass sliding in a groove or other- 
wise made movable. 

This box should be turfed out with good thick turf ; 
embedded in the turf should be a dark-coloured bowl 
(these creatures do not like light vessels) ; in one corner 
a rockery can be arranged so as to allow of the frogs and 



284 APPENDIX IV 

toads retiring into shelter during the winter. They may 
hide under the turf or round by the bowl during the 
winter. 

Food. — A supply of small worms, flies, * green flies,' 
caterpillars, etc., may be kept in this vivarium, but very 
often when kept in captivity like this, frogs and toads 
do not make the most of their opportunity for feeding. 
It is well, therefore, once or twice a week, or oftener, to 
place them in a box or eovered-in bowl, give them a 
supply of meal-worms, small earthworms, etc., and leave 
them for a while, an hour or so. Under these conditions, 
they generally make a good meal. One frog fed in such 
a way used to dispose of six, eight, and even nine meal- 
worms at a meal. Both frogs and toads enjoy daily 
exercise on a lawn, or, failing this, in a yard or room. 

As the cold weather comes on, they will pass into hiber- 
nation, and should be left undisturbed; for although it is 
possible by constantly feeding them to prevent them going 
into hibernation, an interruption of their normal hiber- 
nating tendency seems to impair their breeding process. 

When the spring begins, perhaps at the end of 
February or the beginning of March, they will emerge 
from hibernation ; the male croaks lustily, the female 
just weakly. They make their way into the bowl of 
water, and the eggs may be laid. The male, being 
smaller than the female, is on her back while the eggs 
are being laid, and as they are extruded from the female's 
body they are fertilised by sperms from the male. 

The eggs when first laid are quite small black globes 
of ^ inch in diameter, and are enclosed within a film of 
jelly. This soon swells up in the water, and in the case 
of frogs makes a large mass of frog spawn. The spawn 
of toads is not laid in masses but in strings. 



APPENDIX IV 285 

The spawn may be transferred to a darkened aquarium 
or to a dark-lined bowl of water supplied with water- 
weed, and the development of the egg to the tadpole, 
and through the tadpole stage to the little frog stage, 
may be watched, during the next ten or twelve weeks. 
As soon as the tadpoles are hatched from the egg, that is, 
about ten days after egg-laying, they fasten themselves 
on to water-weed, and for the first few weeks of their 
tadpole life are vegetarian. When they are about six 
or seven weeks old, they should be fed on a small strip 
of meat, this being suspended in the water for half an 
hour or so per day. 

By the time they have their hind and front legs 
developed they will be found to cease eating ; their tail 
shrinks, being absorbed into the blood-stream, and sup- 
plying nutriment in that way, and they will frequently 
and persistently come to the top of the water. They 
should now be transferred to the water in the vivarium, 
so that they may come out on to the turf as soon as their 
lung development necessitates this. 

The tiny frogs, now about an inch long, may be fed on 
green flies, a few leaves infested with these insects being 
placed in the vivarium each day. They may be so reared 
till the winter comes and they pass into hibernation. 

SPIDERS 

A female garden spider will be found in late summer 
and during autumn in the centre of her web on sunny 
days in the garden, or on colder days hiding under ivy 
or in some sheltered place. The males will be found 
in similar haunts, but they do not spin to any extent, 
helping themselves to the prey in the female's snare 
when they want a meal. The male is much smaller 



286 APPENDIX IV 

than the female, more conspicuously coloured though, 
and with the same characteristic marks, and may be 
distinguished by his narrow abdomen and the con- 
spicuous * knobs ' on his feelers. These ' knobs ' char- 
acterise all the male spiders. The mature female spider 
has a small pointed projection, pointing backwards, on 
the lower surface of the abdomen, near the junction 
with the chest. This is the organ (' ovipositor ') by 
which the eggs are dropped into the cocoon. 

The male and female spider should be placed in a 
large, ventilated, glass-topped box. Put in a few leaves 
infested with green flies for food, and it is very often 
possible to get the life-history of the spider studied in 
this way, although, because of the naturally ferocious 
tendency of the female spider, one may be disappointed 
and find she has attacked the male and killed him, 
especially if the box is small. In such captivity web- 
construction is carried on, but the garden spider fails to 
follow its usual plan of making a regular orb- web. 

Fertilisation is effected by the male transferring the 
sperms by means of the organs at the ends of his feelers 
into the abdomen of the female. In this way the eggs 
are fertilised, and the female, constructing a silken cup, 
drops into it a large number of small, pale, orange- 
coloured eggs. She then weaves a top to the cup, the 
whole cocoon being specially moored into a corner of 
tbe box. Shortly after this, usually both the male and 
female die, exhausted by their reproductive effort. 

The cocoon may be kept under observation till the 
eggs hatch, which will probably be some time during the 
following spring. 

The male and female house-spider may be 
kept in a way similar, their breeding-season being 



APPENDIX IV 287 

in June and July usually. Water-spiders may be kept 
in an aquarium. They are best, kept by themselves. 
The male is larger than the female. The female con- 
structs a beautiful dome-shaped web among the weed, 
and in this case the web is used as a nest, the eggs being 
laid within the upper part of it in the late summer. 
During the breeding-season the male, too, constructs a 
small dome, quite near the female's. 





House-Spider (Tegenaria domestica). 

A, Female. B, Male. They vary in size considerably. The female 
may be § inch long in the body, the male £ inch long in the 
body. In colour dull brown, with blackish markings. 

Here again, in the case of water-spiders, one may be 
disappointed, for sometimes the male attacks the female 
and kills her. 

THE REARING OF CATERPILLARS 

In hunting for caterpillars, one should examine plants 
which show signs of the ravages of these larvae. Such 



288 



APPENDIX IV 



plants will be eaten at the edges, or between the veins, 
and if the larvae are not immediately seen, one should 
hunt under the leaves and within the buds. Some 
caterpillars are adepts at hiding themselves ; some 
drop on a silken thread when they are startled. 
Certain species are to be found in the soil. 

It is well to know that 
many caterpillars have their 
bodies clothed in thick or 
fine hairs, and these hairs 
often have an irritating 
effect upon the skin, so it is 
advisable to wear gloves when . 
hunting for these creatures. 

Having found the cater- 
pillars, secure some of the 
food-plant (that is the plant 
upon which they are found 
feeding) and place them in 
a tin or cardboard box for 
conveyance home. The box 
should have a well - fitting 
lid, as many caterpillars are 
Arrangement for observing comparatively strong, and 
0F can raise an ordinary card- 
board lid and escape. 
A simple vivarium in which the caterpillar can be 
studied easily is made as follows : 

A bottle of water is corked, through the cork a twig 
of the food- plant is inserted, passing well into the water, 
and on this the caterpillar is placed. A fine black 
muslin bag is made to enclose the twig and to draw 
up closely round the stem. The caterpillar is thus 




the Life - History 
Caterpillars. 



APPENDIX IV 



289 



supplied with plenty of food and secured from escape, 
and can easily be studied through the muslin. This 
is particularly useful for the study of those caterpillars 
which need their food in a growing condition. 

Some caterpillars, for example, those of the Large 
Cabbage Butterfly, of the Lesser White Butterfly, of 
the Underwing Moth, all to be found on the cabbage, 
are content with fresh supplies of leaves daily. The 
larvae of the Dot Moth, to be found on geraniums, 
prefer growing twig. The Buff Tip larva feeds on 




A Simple Larva Case hade out of a Chalk-box. 



leaves of lime and other timber trees, the Buff Ermine 
on foliage of kidney bean plants. 

Asimple observation-box maybe made out of a wooden 
chalk-box, the back being replaced by perforated zinc or 
black muslin, the lid by al sheet of glass (one half -plate 
negative or two quarter-plates fit into the grooves of an 
ordinary chalk-box, and, cleaned by soaking in boiling hot 
water and soda, may easily be used up for this purpose). 

When a simple observation home has been prepared, 
the structure and habits of the caterpillar may easily 
be observed. How it eats, casts its skin periodically 
(because its skin, being composed of chitin, does not 

19 



290 APPENDIX IV 

stretch to accommodate the increased bulk, due to its 
heavy feeding), how it moves, its different types of 
legs and their uses, how it behaves when disturbed, 
its sense of smell, of hearing, of sight, may be all investi- 
gated by simple experiments. 

Before it is going to moult it usually seeks a some- 
what sheltered part of its food-plant or box, and rests 
perfectly still for a period of some hours, perhaps for a 
day, before casting its skin. After the last moult it 
does not make a new skin, but, drawing its body up 
so that it becomes shorter and broader, a thin gummy 
liquid exudes from the surface of the body, and this 
gradually hardens into a more or less horny covering. 
The caterpillar is now known as a ' pupa ' or * chrysalis,' 
and in this condition it remains for some time, perhaps 
for a few weeks, or perhaps for months, according to 
the time of year, and according to the species. 

The Cabbage Butterfly caterpillar, pupating in June 
or July, may hatch in a fortnight, whereas those of the 
same species which pupate in September do not hatch 
in the ordinary course till the following spring. 

Before going into pupation, many caterpillars fix 
themselves firmly on to some foundation by a silken 
thread ; others weave a silken cocoon round their 
bodies, and go into pupation in this. 

The Buff Ermine larva makes a cocoon, so does the c silk- 
worm.' The Cabbage Butterfly caterpillar, the Under - 
wing Moth, and the Magpie Moth larvae do not make 
cocoons. The Under wing Moth larva out of doors 
makes its way to the ground and pupates in the soil, but 
kept in captivity, usually creeps under leaves or paper in 
its home ; the Cabbage Butterfly caterpillar pupates on 
cabbage leaves during the early summer ; during the late 



APPENDIX IV 



291 



summer and autumn it makes its way to some sheltered 
wall, railing or barn, and there pupates. 

When caterpillars have gone into pupation, a simple 
pupa house may be arranged out of a box, uprights, 
and muslin. Within this, on sand or sawdust, the 
pupae should be laid, and when they hatch, the imagines 
(as the adults are called) are retained. It is very often 
wise to introduce some of the food-plant, either fastened 
in a bottle, or otherwise supported, and one is very 




A Pupa-House. 

likely, as the males and females are produced, to find 
the eggs laid on the leaves of the food-plant and the 
life-history to start once more. This is particularly 
so with the Magpie Moth, which, besides feeding on the 
gooseberry bush and currant bush, is frequently to be 
found on Euonymus in the autumn. These autumn 
caterpillars live in an almost hibernating condition 
over the winter, grow rapidly in the spring, pupate as 
yellow and black banded pupae hanging on the under 



292 APPENDIX IV 

side of the leaves, or on the twigs, and, if reared in a 
suitable vivarium, where the twig is growing, shortly 
after the adult moths emerge from pupation, the 
eggs will be fertilised and laid on the leaves of 
the twig. 

Diary of Magpie Moth Caterpillars kept under 
Muslin Bag 

October 21, 1913. — Caterpillars of Magpie Moth 
found in Euonymus shrub — removed to vivarium. 

May 22, 1914. — They went into pupation. 

June 17, 1914.-*-Sotae of them emerged as adult 
moths. 

June 24, 25, 1914. — Eggs found deposited on the 
leaves of twig. Adults died. 

Many moth larvae pupate under the soil. This is 
the case, for example, with the Cabbage Moth larva, 
the * Surface ' caterpillars, many of which are to be 
found in cabbage ' hearts/ Buff-Tip Moth larvae, and 
some others. They will be found, in captivity, to pupate 
under the leaves of their food-plant, or under the paper 
lining their box ; or if a pot of soil or layer of soil is 
arranged in their vivarium they will pupate in that. 

To keep these pupae in a pupa-house for observation, 
and at the same time to secure the right conditions of 
moisture, a layer of damped moss may be placed over 
the pupae, it being remoistened as necessary. Another 
plan is to embed in the centre of the soil or sand forming 
the floor of the pupa-house, a porous pot kepti filled with 
water ; a small plant-pot with the hole at tihe bottom 
filled up by a cork answers very well. The Buff-Tip 
Moth does not hatch till about June or July. 



APPENDIX IV 293 

Silk-bearing moths may be reared from the eggs, 
with comparative ease, if care be taken to prevent the 
larvae from being chilled. The eggs of the silk-moth 
(Bombyx mori) cost usually fourpence a hundred. 
They are usually supplied on sheets of paper on which 
they have been laid by the female moth. 

They should be placed in shallow cardboard boxes — 
box-lids usually do very well — and covered by a sheet 
of glass or placed within a breeding cage. At a tempera- 
ture of 60° F., or slightly over, the eggs hatch, tiny 
black caterpillars coming forth. These should be fed 
on mulberry leaves, or if these leaves are unprocurable, 
finely-chopped cos lettuce leaves. The young larvae 
feed very voraciously. When it is necessary to clean 
the tray, which should be at least every other day, 
place fresh leaves over the silkworms. The majority 
of the larvae will crawl on to these leaves ; the remainder 
transfer by means of a camel-hair brush to the fresh, 
well-dried food leaves. Silkworms are somewhat 
delicate. They should never be handled, and should 
be carefully protected against change of temperature. 
They moult four times, and prior to the fifth moult 
seek a sheltered corner. When this is observed, the 
silkworm should be gently transferred to a paper 
cone, and this fastened up on the wall of the breeding- 
box. In this, cocoon-making and pupation will take 
place, and about twenty-one days after the cocoon is 
finished, the silk-moth makes its way out. The adults 
do not feed ; if males and females are kept together 
for the few days of their adult life, the eggs may be 
fertilised and deposited on sheets of paper arranged in 
the case to receive them. 



294 APPENDIX IV 



STICK INSECTS AND SOME RELATIVES 

These relatives of the Earwig and Cockroach, although 
not truly British species, are very easy to rear. The 
eggs may be procured from dealers. 1 They look like 
small brown seeds. They require no special treatment, 
simply to be placed in a box or watch-glass or within a 
breeding-cage, and kept in a warm room. Twigs of 
privet (their food-plant) should be arranged over them, 
and the whole covered by a bell-jar or jam-jar. 

Some varieties feed very well indeed upon ivy. 

They all feed very greedily, except while they are 
preparing to moult, and during the process. 

The male and female earwigs (harmless creatures, 
really) may be distinguished by the pair of pincers 
projecting at the end of the body, those of the male 
being stronger, thicker, and much more sharply curved 
than those of the female. The eggs are to be found 
in the ground just underneath the surface, or on the 
surface of the soil, at different times from autumn to 
early spring. They are pale yellow clusters, and the 
female seems to watch over them till they hatch, and 
to some extent over the young larvae. The females 
seem to die in the spring, after the eggs hatch. 

The cockroach — the so-called ' black-beetle ' — is not 
a great favourite. Yet because it is so common, and 
may provide convenient illustration, it should be men- 
tioned here. The males are smaller and narrower than 
the females ; they possess a pair of stiff wing-cases, 
below which are folded a pair of membranous flight- 
wings : the female cannot fly at all ; she possesses only 

1 L. W. Newman, F.E.S., Bexley, Kent, supplies them at 3d. a 
dozen (postage Id.). 



APPENDIX IV 295 

small, half-formed wing-covers, and no flight-wings. 
The eggs are laid during the summer. Sixteen are 
placed together in a small, dark brown horny capsule 
a little over quarter of an inch long. The female may 
often be seen running along with this curious purse - 
shaped capsule attached to the end of her body. She 
finally drops it in a sheltered corner, and in time the 
eggs hatch, and the young, little, pale cream-coloured 
creatures, make their way out of the capsule. 

SNAILS AND SLUGS 

Both snails and slugs are more easily found in damp 
weather than in dry. In cold and also in dry weather 
they are to be found under stones, buried in the soil, 
under old wood, and in various sheltered corners. 
Slugs often bury themselves during the daytime under 
the earth. 

To secure a large number of slugs for observation 
the following plans may be adopted : 

1. Cut a turnip in half , scoop out the centre, and embed 
it in the soil where the slugs are known to frequent. 
The edge of the turnip should be slightly below the 
level of the soil. If this is done one day, or during the 
evening, the next morning a large number of slugs is 
usually to be found within the turnip cup. A similar 
trap may be made by using a large cabbage or lettuce 
leaf. 

2. Ordinary paling-boards, laid over-night along 
the sides of flower-beds, where slugs are known to be, 
when turned over next morning will be found to have 
many slugs adhering to the under side. 

A simple vivarium may be constructed : a box with 



296 APPENDIX IV 

one side replaced by glass,and ventilation provided for by 
replacing part or all of two opposite sides by perforated 
zinc. The lid of the box should be secured, for the 
creatures are likely to escape if the box is uncovered. 
This box should be turfed out, a little rockery arranged 
at one end, and the turf kept nicely moist. Both snails 
and slugs may be kept in a box like this for observation. 

Food. — They should be provided with vegetable 
food such as they are known to select from the neigh- 
bourhood. Snails sometimes like a little bread. 

As the cold weather comes on, both slugs and snails 
go into hibernation. The slugs bury themselves in the 
soil, and the snails retire under a rockery or stones or 
fix themselves in a corner of the box, withdrawing 
themselves entirely into their shell and exuding mucus 
over the opening of the shell. This hardens and forms 
a protective covering for the winter, just a small opening 
being left through which slight respiration can take 



The reproduction of snails and slugs has already 
been dealt with in Chapter VI. 

Most snails and slugs are vegetarian; there is, 
however, a small species — Testacella — which is carniv- 
orous. It feeds on earthworms, and follows them into 
their burrows. It is small and greyish in colour, and 
may be recognised by the presence of a small, ear-shaped 
flat shell at the hind end. This species is f ound fre- 
quently on asparagus beds. It may live for four or 
five years. The eggs are laid separately, six or seven 
only being laid. 

All snails and slugs are hermaphrodite, and all require 
cross fertilisation. They belong to the class Mollusca, 
and are, on the whole, sluggish animals. 



APPENDIX IV 297 

The mass of muscles, of which the main part of the 
body is composed, is known as the * foot/ In the 
snail, the main organs of the body are contained in that 
part of the body which is hidden in the shell. 

The habits of snails and slugs are interesting ; their 
method of movement may well be observed by allowing 
a snail to crawl over a sheet of glass, and from the under 
side the muscular parts may easily be seen. The mouth 
can also be watched. Their favourite food can be 
found out by giving them a selection. The shell, con- 
sisting of three layers, is formed by the ' mantle,' the 
fold of tissue which lines the shell. 

The slime given out from the body of the slugs and 
snails is specially protective, and if it becomes dried 
up, the creature will suffer very severely, and probably 
die, and it is to avoid this that the creatures retire under 
stones and into sheltered places when the weather 
becomes very dry. 

Snails are inclined to hibernate gregariously. Often 
several of them will be found united by congealed 
slime. 

An interesting observation is to measure the rate of 
progress made by the snail towards various food-stuffs. 
For example, it is frequently found that it will move 
quickly towards strawberries and turn away from onions. 

A comparison of the weight-carrying power of a 
snail with that of other creatures may easily be made. 
For example, the addition of plasticine to the shell 
until it is no longer able to move under its burden. 
Then the weight of the snail and the weight of the 
burden it can carry may be obtained, and some idea 
of the proportionate carrying-power of the creature 
may be estimated. 



298 



APPENDIX IV 



Water-snails may be studied and compared with the 
land-snails. Water-snails are easily kept in an aquarium. 



THE LIFE-HISTORY OF THE HOUSE-FLY 

Place on a clean glass slab or plate several pieces of 
stale bread and shreds of old newspaper, all moistened, 




Stages in the Life of a House-Fly. (All enlarged.) 
A, Female fly. B, Head of male fly showing the position and size 
of the eyes. C, Maggot (cream-coloured, natural size J inch 
approximately). D, Pupa (brown, natural size T \ inch). 

and one or two bits of dark cloth, all heaped up. Cover 
with a long pint tumbler. Catch some flies either by a 
swift sweep of the hand or in some fly-trap which will 
catch them without killing them. Fling them on to a flat 
dish of water ; this wets their wings, so that they may 
easily be examined and transferred under the tumbler. 
Having caught the flies, examine them as to sex. 



APPENDIX IV 299 

The eyes of the female are apart from one another ; 
the feelers are short and not so profuse as in the male, 
whose eyes almost meet on the top of the head, and 
whose feelers are sturdier than those of the female. 

In the course of a few days, some flies' eggs will be 
observed if carefully looked for. They are laid in 
heaps, sometimes end to end, and some may be found 
and more easily seen on the dark cloth than on the 
bread or newspaper. In a few hours the eggs become 
minute headless, legless larvae (maggots), which rapidly 
grow in size, and can often be seen moving up and down 
the sides of the glass. When fall grown, the larvae 
pupate, remaining in pupation a varying time according 
to the temperature. In hot weather the whole growth 
from egg to adult fly may take place in eight days, 
though usually from ten to fourteen or up to twenty 
days is required. 

The life-history of the blue-bottle (blowfly) may be 
studied in the same way, but instead of bread and 
paper a small piece of meat should be placed under 
the tumbler. 

House-flies usually lay their eggs in refuse heaps. 
There the larvae live and pupate, and, as adults, make 
their way back to the haunts of man. It is because of 
this habit of living part of their life on refuse heaps 
that they come to be so dangerous as carriers of disease. 

Many of the adult flies hibernate over the winter. 
Hewitt found that flies become sexually mature in from 
ten to fourteen days after emergence from pupation, 
and that the female deposited eggs four days after 
fertilisation. This was in captivity, and it is possible 
that when free these periods are much shorter. 1 

1 The House Fly, by L. 0. Howard. Published by John Murray. 



300 APPENDIX IV 



EARTHWORMS 

A good time to begin the study of earthworms is in 
the autumn, for their work as Nature's ploughmen is 
very evident at that time. 

Digging in the soil, one can obtain as many earth- 
worms as one wants for this work. Their habits may 
be studied experimentally by arranging wormeries, 
observationally, out of doors. On a lawn or in a garden 
may be seen the leaves from the trees pulled into the 
ground, point first, by the earthworms ; the fine worm 
castings heaped up on the surface of the soil show the 
work done by the creatures in pulverising the soil and 
bringing the lower layers of soil up to the surface. At 
night-time one can go out with a lantern and see many 
worms on the surface of the ground, but they seem to 
scurry away quickly when the light is flashed on them. 

Wormeries may be set up to show {a) the way in 
which the earthworms turn over the soil. An inverted 
bell-jar or glass-fronted box may be arranged as 
follows : Layer of sand, then the earthworms placed in, 
layers of sand, soil, chalk, soil, dead leaves, and soil ; 
the whole should be well moistened, and drainage 
allowed. The box, when not in observation, should be 
turned with the glass towards a dark wall, and the bell- 
jar provided with a strong brown paper cover to shade it. 
In time — some days, or it may be weeks — earthworm 
tracks will be seen, the layers will be considerably 
disturbed, and the leaves will be pulled in and buried. 

(6) To find the favourite food. A wormery may be 
made of sand or poor soil and equal amounts of various 
food-stufis put in, i.e. potato, sprouts, carrot, and so 
forth, and as time goes on it can be seen which food the 



APPENDIX IV 301 

earthworms prefer. The food should be placed next 
to the glass in full view, and the glass darkened when 
not under actual observation. 

(c) To determine whether they are sensitive to light. 
Another wormery may be constructed, half of it 
covered with a dark, light-proof cover. In due time it 
may be observed whether the earthworms work more 
freely in the darkened half or the light half. 

Reproduction, — Towards April, the part of the body 
in front of the swollen * saddle ' will be seen to be en- 
larged, and the racial organs shine through as cream- 
coloured masses. Cross fertilisation takes place, the 
sperms being stored temporarily in two * storehouses ' 
(seminal vesicles), the eggs later being laid in a small 
cocoon formed by the saddle and sperms passed over 
them. The cocoon is then closed up. It is under 
J inch in diameter, is usually white at first, but soon 
turns yellow or brown. There may be several eggs in 
a cocoon, but as a rule only one hatches, and thrives 
at the expense of the others. 

Other interesting points in connection with the 
study of earthworms are the structure of the body, 
method of movement, use of the bristles, nature of the 
slime, investigation of its powers of hearing, sight, 
smell, rate of movement, and so on. 

THE MAKING OF AN AQUARIUM 

A glass tank, rectangular, 16 inches long, 12 inches 
deep, 10 inches wide, makes a good size for ordinary 
purposes, but, of course, smaller tanks will do for small 
animals like water-slaters, water-boatmen, and small 
water-beetles ; for sluggish ones like snails and mussels, 



302 



APPENDIX IV 



an inverted gardener's bell-glass, supported in a block of 
wood, will do. 

The bottom of the tank should be covered for a 
depth of about 3 inches with sand, and then a layer of 
pebbles, or all pebbles will do, or all sand. Both sand 
and pebbles should be boiled in water for one hour 
before being used for the tank, and then, after cooling, 
should be placed in the tank as described. A little water 
should be run in gently, and then drawn off by a siphon- 




An Aquarium. 

A glass cover may be arranged to rest on small slips of cork 
cemented on to the edge. In this way air is allowed to circu- 
late, though the tank is protected from dust. 



tube, this process repeated several times to ensure 
absolute cleanliness of the gravel. 

Then water-plants should be weighted down into 
the gravel. They may be fastened securely by being 
tied to a piece of stone or rock which has been previously 
boiled, or a piece of lead tubing twisted round the stem 
answers very well. Some plants, e.g. Tape-weed, Water 
Violet, Water Crowfoot, which have a decided roo ting- 
habit, do better if they are planted in a small pot of 



APPENDIX IV 303 

soil, a layer of pebbles being pressed down over the 
soil to prevent it from mixing with the water. The 
pot may be concealed in the rockery or embedded in 
the pebbles. Water-weeds should be obtained from 
a neighbouring pond, if possible, or purchased from 
a dealer. The following are very good : Canadian 
Pond Weed (Elodea), Tape-weed (Vallisneria), Water 
Violet, Water Crowfoot, Hornwort, Water Milfoil, 
Water Starwort. 

Crystalwort, Duckweed, Fairy Floating Moss are all 
suitable for floating on the top of the water. 

A rockery (allowing for shade and caves for those 
animals which seek shelter) should be erected in the 
centre or in one corner, the precaution again being taken 
to sterilise the stones by boiling. The rocks should be 
erected to above the surface of the water, to allow of 
amphibians, e.g. newts, coming out of the water as they 
desire. 

A good supply of water-weed is necessary, the 
usual proportion which is found to be successful being — 
comparing the bulk of the plants with the bulk of the 
animals — the bulk of the plants should be a hundred 
time3 that of the animals. 

The water-weeds give off as their waste product, 
oxygen, which the animals need for respiration, and the 
animals give off as their waste product, carbon dioxide, 
which the plants need for food, and if the balance of 
life is perfect in the tank, that is to say, if the plants and 
animals are in right proportion to supply each the needs 
of the other, there is little need to change the water in 
the tank. 

Having planted the weeds, the tank should be left 
for a fortnight or so, and if at the end of that time 



304 APPENDIX IV 

the plants are growing well, it is safe to introduce the 
animals, care being taken to avoid over-population. 

Dragon-fly larvae, water-beetles and their larvse, 
water-boatmen, are best kept by themselves, because 
they are carnivorously inclined and fierce, frequently 
attacking the other inhabitants of the aquarium. 

The largest English water-beetle, the large Silver 
Water-beetle, is, however, vegetarian, and may be 
kept very well along with Minnows, Sticklebacks, 
and so on. Snails are also vegetarian. 

Feeding. — Minnows, sticklebacks, goldfish, all eat 
ants' eggs, finely crumbled vermicelli, or patent fish- 
food. Newts can be trained to feed on ants' eggs 
too. It is well to put into the tank some pond water 
containing quantities of minute water crustaceans and 
other small animals, tiny worms, and so forth, for these 
form suitable diet for many of the aquarium inhabitants. 

The carnivorous creatures need fine strips of meat. 
Most of the caddises are vegetarian, but a few species, 
particularly those which build their tubes of fresh green 
weed, seem to be carnivorous. 

Tadpoles feed on water-weed. When they are about 
seven or eight weeks old they should have a little meat 
suspended in the water for half an hour a day. 

To keep the aquarium healthy, care should be taken 
to remove daily any uneaten food, any d&bris, dead 
leaves, etc. These may easily be removed by a siphon- 
tube. 

If the tank is not well aerated, that is, if the supply 
of plants is not sufficient,or if decaying matter is allowed 
to stay in the tank, a water fungus (Saprolegnia) de- 
velops very quickly and infects the live stock, killing 
them off. Such an infected condition is recognisable. 



APPENDIX IV 305 

The animal, dead or living, becomes coated with fine 
hairs, like mould on bread. 

For fuller details on the care and management of 
an aquarium, see School Nature Study Leaflet No. 11, 
to be obtained from the Secretary, School Nature 
Study Union, 1 Grosvenor Park, Camberwell, S.E. 
The Aquarium, by Bateman, The Fresh-Water Aquarium, 
by Otto Eggeling and F. Ehrenberg. 

Simple Experiments on the Growth of Moulds 

Set up the following : 

1. Dry bread in daylight, dry bread in dark. 

2. Damp bread in daylight, damp bread in dark. 

3. Stewed prunes in daylight, stewed prunes in 

dark. 

Each should be placed in a saucer and covered with 
a tumbler carefully labelled and dated. Within a week 
or so it will be found that moulds have developed on 
the damp bread and probably on the prunes (though 
it may be a little longer before it develops on the 
prunes), and usually little or none develops on the dry 
bread. It will also be found that on those in the dark, 
growth has taken place more rapidly and freely than 
on those in the daylight. 

If, also, similar sets of bread and prunes are placed in 
similar positions, but are not covered over by a tumbler, 
it will be found that the moulds grow less freely, if at 
all, in the same given time. 

From a very simple series of observations such as 
this, it is gathered that darkness and dampness and 
stagnant air foster the growth of moulds. Probably, 
also, a good deal of bacterial growth, indicated by yellow 
and brownish and sometimes by red colouration of the 

20 



306 APPENDIX IV 

bread, will be found to have taken place particularly 
on the damp bread in the dark. 

A further series of observations may be made. Two 
test tubes containing a small slip of dry bread, two 
containing damp bread, and two containing prunes, 
should each be plugged with cotton-wool, placed in a 
rack or beaker, and sterilised by exposing to steam from 
boiling water (this can be very conveniently done in 
an ordinary potato steamer) for half an hour or more. 
Each test tube should be labelled and, after sterilisation 
and cooling, one of each type should have the plug re- 
moved, and, be exposed to air for a quarter of an hour 
or so, and then replugged, the others left unexposed to 
air. These test tubes should be kept under observation 
for several weeks. 

In which do the moulds develop, and what conclusion 
can be drawn' from this ? 

Something of the life-history of the Pin Mould (Mucor 
mucedo) may be conveyed in very simple language to 
young children of twelve or so, and more fully, aided 
by microscopical examination, to older pupils. The 
plant not possessing the green colour found in all 
ordinary plants has to live differently from them. 
The green part of a plant helps it to take food from the 
air (carbon dioxide made into starch through the agency 
of chlorophyll grains). Now, as these moulds cannot 
make food from the air, not having any leaf-green, 
they have to get it ready-made. So they live 
and grow on things like bread, fruit, jelly, damp 
wood, and so on, or some of them live in and on 
other living plants. They are very simple plants, with 
no leaves or stem or roots. Each plant just consists 
of a fine white thread which branches very freely. 



APPENDIX IV 307 

In this thread is the living substance (protoplasm) 
of the plant. 

Some of the threads will be seen to raise themselves 
up in the air. The end of this raised thread swells, 
making a round knob. Into this, the living substance 
gathers and fills the knob. Then it breaks up into 
tiny grains (spores) and the knob bursts, liberating the 
tiny grains. Each spore is really a baby mould, and 
falling on to some bread or fruit, or something else 
suitable to it, can grow and make a new mould plant. 
There is another way in which the baby mould plants 
may be made. The ends of two of the white threads 
may come together ; the living substance gathers in 
each end. Then the two ends join, and the two masses 
of living substance join, and form a single ball of proto- 
plasm. This also is a baby mould, and it can grow into 
a new mould plant. 

Germination of Healthy and of Diseased Seeds 

Soak two lots of seeds (e.g. peas, beans, wheat) in 
water, one lot for about twenty hours, the other for a 
few days, till they have become covered with bacterial 
slime. 

Plant the two sets of seeds in separate pots, pans, or 
boxes, in the same medium (e.g. soil, sphagnum moss, 
sand). Keep moistened. Watch development. 

The healthy seeds grow up into strong plants. The 
diseased ones grow very little, if at all. 



308 



APPENDIX IV 






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310 APPENDIX IV 

Fertilisation in Seaweeds 

Most of the olive-brown seaweeds mature in the 
autumn and early winter, though the time of maturity 
fluctuates somewhat according to the weather. From 
October onwards, one may be fairly sure of obtaining 
some of the olive-browns in a mature condition. They 
travel quite well, being useful for several days after 
dispatch. 

To see the process of fertilisation, hang up the plants 
in the air for a short time. Out of some conceptacles 
(i.e. the minute cup-like depressions from which fine 
hairs project, and which are aggregated at the ends of 
some of the branches, causing the ends to be thickened, 
in some cases greatly swollen) an orange slime is seen 
to exude. This contains the spermatozoa. From 
others perhaps on the same plant, perhaps on another 
plant of the same species, a greenish slime exudes. 
This contains the oospheres, which are recognisable 
with a hand-lens. Each may be examined micro- 
scopically separately, in a drop of sea-water (failing this, 
fresh water in which a seaweed plant has been rinsed, 
will do). The small motile sperm, consisting of a nucleus 
and two protoplasmic cilia, bears great contrast to the 
large, passive, non-ciliate ovum, rich in protoplasmic 
nutrient material. 

Then in a drop of water some of the green slime (ova) 
and some of the orange slime (sperms) may be mixed, 
and the process of fertilisation seen to take place. 
Numerous sperms bombard each ovum till the entrance 
of one is effected. The ovum then comes to rest, and 
very quickly begins to germinate. 



APPENDIX IV 



311 



Name. 


Description. 


Remarks. 


Fucus vesimclosus . 


Perennial 


<$ and 9 conceptacles on differ- 


(Bladder Wrack) 




ent plants usually, but some- 
times on the same. 


F. serratus 


n 


<J and 9 on different plants 


(Toothed Wrack) 




usually. 


F. nodosus 


II 


<$ and 9 on different plants 


(Knotted Wrack) 




usually. 


F. cancrticulatus 


II 


6 and 9 on different plants 
usually. 


F. platyearyms 


If 


6 and 9 on same plant and 
in same conceptacle, usually 










found highest on the shore 






(i.e. near to high -water 






mark). 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

In this short list of books — by no means exhaustive — will 
be found many which should be of service to the general 
reader who desires to follow up some of the questions 
raised in connection with these matters concerning the 
education and training of children. It is somewhat 
difficult to classify the literature as, in many cases, the 
bearings of one work may be valuable in several direc- 
tions ; but an attempt is made to place each work in the 
category appropriate to its main trend. The books 
named should, for the most part, be helpful to the 
general reader ; no attempt is made to include the more 
purely scientific and advanced workB bearing upon the 
subjects treated in the text. Those works marked * are, 
however, of a more technical and advanced nature than 
those unmarked. 

PSYCHOLOGICAL 

The Adolescent, J. W. Slaughter. Geo. Allen & Co. 

Youth, Stanley Hall. Appleton. 

* Adolescence, Stanley Hall. Appleton. 2 vols. 

An Introduction to the Study of Adolescent Education, C. 

Bruyn Andrews. Rebman. 
^Social Psychology, McDougall. Methuen. 
Psychology, McDougall. Williams & Norgate. Is. (A 

simple introduction to Psychology.) 
The Physical and Mental Life of School Children, Sandiford. 

Longmans. 
Aspects of Child Life and Education, Stanley Hall. Ginn & 

Co. 

Dawn of Character, Mumford. Longmans. 

312 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 313 

Life, Emotion, and Intellect, Cyril Bruyn Andrews. Fisher 

Unwin. 
*The Child: a Study in the Evolution of Man, Chamberlain. 

Scott Pub. Co. 
Genetic Psychology, Kirkpatrick. McMillan. 
The GornerStone of Education, Lyttelton. Putnams. 1914. 
Animal Behaviour, Lloyd Morgan. Arnold. 
The Play of Man, K. Groos. Appleton. 
An Introduction to Child Study, Drummond. Arnold. 
The Century of the Child, Ellen Key. Putnams. 
Child - Nurture, Honnor Morten. Mills & Boon. (A 

handbook for parents and teachers.) 
The Case for Co-education, Grant & Hodgson. Grant 

Richards. 
The Psychology of Parenthood, an article by Dr. Saleeby in 

the Eugenics Review, vol. i., No. 1. 

EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG 

Three Gifts of Life, Nellie Smith. Cassell & Co. (Talks to 

girls from twelve to sixteen.) 
Life and its Beginnings, Helen Webb, M.D. Cassell & Co. 

(For girls under twelve.) 
What a Boy Should Know, A. T. Schofield, M.D., and P. 

Vaughan- Jackson, M.D. Cassell & Co. (For boys 

under twelve.) 
Training of the Young in Laws of Sex, Lyttelton. Long- 
mans, Green, & Co. 
Youth and Sex, Dr. Mary Scharlieb and Arthur Sibly. 

T. C. & E. C. Jack. 6d. (Advice to adults.) 
An Appeal to Mothers, Anon. Treacher & Co., Brighton. 

Is. 
Mothers and Sons, Lyttelton. 
On the Threshold of Sex, Gould. Daniel. (For boys 

and girls between . twelve and eighteen years of 

age.) 
Plant and Animal Children: How They Grow, Torelle. 

Harrap. 
The Next Generation Jewett. Ginn & Co. (For boys and 

girls.) 



314 BIBLIOGRAPHY 



For Young Men and Young Women 

W hat it Means to Marry, Mary Scharlieb, M.D. Cassell. 

2s. 6d. (For young women over eighteen.) 
We Young Men, Hans Wegener. Translation from the 

German Wir Junge Manner. Vir Pub. Co. 
Woman and Marriage, Margaret Stephens. Fisher Unwin. 
Health, Strength, and Happiness, Saleeby. Grant Richards. 
Preparation for Marriage, Heape. Cassells. 2s. 6d. (For 

young men.) 

Many of the volumes named in the section " Education 
for Parenthood " may be included in this list also ; the 
" New Tracts for the Times " should be particularly helpful 
in the formation of opinion. 



EDUCATION FOR PARENTHOOD 

Eugenics, Schuster. Collins. Is. 

An Introduction to Eugenics, W. C. D. and C. D. Whetham. 
McMillan. Is. 

The following " New Tracts for the Times " : 

Education and Race- Regeneration, Gorst. Cassell 

&Co. 6d. 
Religion and Race- Regeneration, Meyer. Cassell 

&Co. 6d. 
Womanhood and Race - Regeneration, Scharlieb. 

Cassell & Co. 6d. 
The Problem of Race-Regeneration, Ellis. Cassell & Co. 

6d. 
The Methods of Race- Regeneration, Saleeby. Cassell 

&Co. 6d. 
The Declining Birthrate : Its National and Inter- 
national Significance. Newsholme, Cassell 

&Co. 6d. 
Problems of Sex, Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur 

Thomson. Cassell & Co. 6d. 
Morals and Brain, Clouston. Cassell & Co. 6d, 

*Mendelism, Punuett. McMillan. 5s. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 315 

Heredity in the Light of Recent Research, Doncaster. Cam- 
bridge. 

Method and Scope of Genetics, Bateson. Cambridge Univer- 
sity Press. 

* Problems of Genetics, Bateson. Clarendon Press. 

Parenthood and Race-Culture ; An Outline of Eugenics, 
Saleeby. Cassell. 1909. 

The Progress of Eugenics, Saleeby. Cassell & Co. 1914. 

The Family and the Nation, W. C. D. and C. D. Whetham. 
Longmans. 

Heredity and Society, W. C. D. and C. D. Whetham. Long- 
mans. 

The Task of Social Hygiene, H. Ellis. Constable. 

* Heredity, J. Arthur Thomson. Murray. 

Woman, Marriage, and Motherhood, Chesser. Cassell. 
(Deals with social, legal, economic, and eugenic 
questions.) 

Woman and Womanhood, Saleeby. Heinemann. 

The Next Generation, Jewett. Ginn & Co. 

The Eugenics Education Society (Kingsway House, 
Kingsway, W.C.) publishes many valuable pamphlets on 
eugenic questions : 

" Mendelian Heredity in Man," by Major Hurst ; 
" Eugenics and Patriotism," by Professor 
Edgar ; " The Power and Responsibility of 
Womanhood," by Violet Trench ; " Eugenic 
Education for Women and Girls," by Alice 
Ravenhill ; " Heredity and Eugenics in Relation 
to Insanity," by Dr. F. W. Mott ; " Eugenics, 
Ethics, and Religion," by Canon Lyttelton, etc. 
Eugenics Review, published quarterly. 



NATURE STUDY 

A few of the many good books : 

Nature Study : Aims and Methods, Rennie. Univ. 

Tutorial Press. 
How to Teach Nature Study, Hoare. Sidgwick & 

Jackson. 



316 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Plant and Animal Children: How They Grow, 

Torelle. Harrap & Co. 
Pets and How to Keep Them, Finn. Hutchinson & Co. 
An Introduction to Zoology, Lulham. McMillan. (A 

very useful guide to the study of invertebrates.) 
A First Booh of Zoology, Buriend. McMillan. Is. 6d. 
Science from an Easy-Chair, Ray Lankester. Con- 
stable. (A series of essays, some of which bear 

upon biology.) 
Animal Life, Gamble. Williams & Norgate. Is. 
Plant Life, Farmer. Williams & Norgate. Is. 
Infancy of Animals, Pycraft. Hutchinson. 
The Courtship of Animals, Pycraft. London, 1913. 
The Study of Animal Life, J. Arthur Thomson. 

Murray. 
The Childhood of Animals, Chalmers Mitchell. Heine- 

mann. 
^Outlines of Zoology, J. Arthur Thomson. Frowde 

and Hodder & Stoughton. 1 
The Play of Animals, K. Groos. 
Forest Entomology, Gillanders. 

BIOLOGY OF SEX 

Sex, Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson. Williams & 

Norgate. Is. 1913. (Contains also chapters on 

ethics.) 
*The Physiology of Reproduction, Marshall. Longmans. 

(Contains many interesting pages on animal life and 

evolution.) 
Biology of Sex, T. H. Galloway. Harrap. (A simple 

introduction to racial questions.) 
Problems of Sex, Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson. 

v Cassell & Co. 6d. 
^Evolution of Sex, Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson. 

Walter Scott Pub. Co. 
The Wonder of Life, J. Arthur Thomson. Melrose. (See 

specially chapter vi., The Cycle of Life : from Birth 

through Love to Death.) 

1 N.B* — New publisher of late editions. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 317 



EVOLUTION 

Evolution, Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson. Williams 

& Norgate. Is. 
Darwinism and Human Life, J. Arthur Thomson. Melrose. 
Creative Evolution, Henri Bergson. McMillan. 
Recent Progress in the Study of Variation, Heredity, and 

Evolution, Lock. Murray. 
Mutual Aid as Factor in Evolution, Kropotkin. Heinemann. 
Darwinism, A. R. Wallace. 
"Darwinian Theory," "Evolution" — articles by Prof. 

Geddes in Chambers's Encyclopaedia. 
Origin of Species, Charles Darwin. 
Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication, 

Charles Darwin. 
Descent of Man, Charles Darwin. 
Darwinism and Modern Science, Seward. Cambridge. 

PHYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE 

Biology of Sex, Galloway. Harrap. 

The Human Body, Keith. Williams & Norgate. Is. 

Nerves, Fraser Harris. Williams & Norgate. Is. 

Health and Disease,W.LMcKenzie. Williams & Norgate. Is. 

Woman and Womanhood, Saleeby. Heinemann. 

Health, Strength, and Happiness, Saleeby. Grant Richards. 

Hygiene for Girls, Richards. Harrap. 

*The Physiology of Reproduction, Marshall. Longmans. 

Woman and Marriage, Margaret Stephens. Fisher Unwin. 

SOCIAL AND ETHICAL QUESTIONS 

Sex, Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson. Williams & 

Norgate. Is. 
A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil, Jane Addams. 

McMillan. 
Across the Bridges, Alex. Paterson. Arnold. 
Woman and Labour, Schreiner. Fisher Unwin. 
The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets, Jane Addams. 

McMillan. 



318 BIBLIOGEAPHY 

In the Hand of the Potter, Begbie. Hodder & Stoughton. 

London's Underworld, Thos. Holmes. Dent. 

Love and Marriage, Ellen Key. Putnam. 

Social Environment and Moral Progress, Wallace. Cassell. 

Human Derelicts, Edited by T. D. Kelynack. Kelly. 

The Case for Co-education, Grant & Hodgson. Grant 
Richards. 

Moral Instruction and Training in Schools. Edited by 
M. E. Sadler. Longmans. 2 vols. (A series of reports 
following inquiries into moral instruction in schools.) 



INDEX 



Abdominal muscles, 74, 75. 
Acquired characters, 164. 
Acts of Parliament, 1. 
Addams, Jane, 240. 
Addresses to factory girls, 246. 
Adolescence, habits, 77. 
Adolescence, psychology of, 

76 seq., 82, 84 seq., 90 seq., 

176 seq., 221. 
Adolescence, 38 seq., 42 seq., 

47 seq., 60 seq. 
After-birth, 274. 
Age of consent, 243. 
Albinism, 195, 210. 
Alcoholic beverages, 266. 
Alcoholic intemperance, 172, 

175, 189, 199 seq., 216. 
Alder, 308. 

Altruism, 89 seq., 168, 187. 
Andrews, C. B., 186. 
Anglo-Indians, 209. 
Animals, parenthood in, 101. 
Annual Mercury, 308. 
Aquarium, 122 seq., 301 seq. 
Aquatic plants, 3(X) seq. 
Arnold, Edwin, 188. 
Arum, 309. 
Asceticism, 172. 
Athletics, 74, 84. 
Attraction, of sexes, 11, 222. 

Babies, origin of, 59 seq., 247 

seq. See Early questions. 
Barnardo's Homes, 208. 
Barnes, Professor Earl, 181. 



Bedclothing, 54. 

Bedrooms, 54, 79. 

Beech, 309. 

Beetles, 122. 

Bible history, 182. 

Biological approach, value of, 

145. 
Biology, 150, 158. 
Birch, 309. 
Birds, 100, 130 seq., 250; 

feeding of, 281. 
Birth, 249, 251,271,274. 
Birth-rate, 225. 
Blindness, 205. 

Boarding-school, 65, 68, 79, 80. 
Boredom, 82, 91, 92. 
Botany, 150, 216. 
Box, 307. 

Boy Scouts, 13, 86. 
Boys and girls, companionship 

of, 80. 
Boys, care of, at puberty, 61, 66. 
Boys compared with girls, 16, 

19, 27, 29, 31, 37, 78, 90, 243. 
Boys, lapse in conduct, 243. 
Boys, puberty in, 23. 
Boys, traininginself-control,81. 
Breeding season, 122 seq., 139 

seq. 
Butterfly, 119 seq., 288 seq. 

Cabbage butterfly, 119 seq., 

289 seq. 
Caddis-fly, 215, 304. 
1 Camp Fire ' Girls, 86 seq. 



3ig 



320 



INDEX 



Campion, 108, 215, 309. 

Career for girls, 228. 

Caterpillars, 119 seq., 287 seq. 

Catkins, 108 seq., 308 seq. 

Cats, 101, 142, 158. 

Century of the Child, 1, 313. 

Change of life, 27. 

Character training, 82 seq. 

Chestnut (sweet), 309. 

Childhood, first period, 18, 102. 

Childhood, periods of, 16. 

Child's early questions, 98, 99, 
148, 166, 247 seq. 

Child's sensitiveness, 14. 

Chrysalis, 121, 290 seq. 

Circumcision, 53. 

Civics, 230. 

' Clan ' spirit, 89. 

Climacterium, 27. 

Climatic conditions, 17. 

Clitoris, 268. 

Clothing, unsuitable, 53, 57, 75, 
263. 

Cockroach, 119, 294. 

Colour-blindness, 192. 

Companions, 8, 67. 

Conception, 273. See Fertilisa- 
tion. 

Conjugation, 166. 

Continuation school, 211. 

Corporal punishment, 69. 

Corruption of girls, 239 seq. 

Corsets, 75. 

Courtship dance of spider, 42, 
117. 

Courtship of birds, 132 seq. 

Courtship of frogs, 127. 

Crichton-Browne, Sir J., 179, 
180. 

Curiosity, childish, 99, 252. 

Cyclops, 151 seq. 

Daffodil, 104, 105. 
Dancing, 245. 
Daphnia, 151 seq. 
Darwin, Charles, 161, 163, 218, 
219. 



Darwin, Major L., 201. 
Day-dreaming, 181. 
Death-rate among babies, 225. 
Degenerates, 196. 
Development of chick, 135 seq., 

254. 
Development of water-snail, 

137. 
Development, physical, 16 seq. 
Development, psychological, 

16 seq. 
Dioecious plants, 308. 
Doctor, 235. 

Doctrine of Descent, 161. 
Dogs, 101, 142. 
Dog's Mercury, 108, 308. 
Domestic economy, 223 seq., 

227. 
Domestication of mammals, 

139. 
Dominant, 154. 
Dormice, 280. 
Dragon-fly larva, 304. 
Dreams, 61. 
Duckmole, 142. 

Early questions, 98, 148 seq., 

166, 247. 
Earthworms, 110, 111, 159, 

300 seq. 
Earwigs, 119, 294. 
Economic pressure and pros- 
titution, 242. 
Education of girls, 78, 223. 
Eggs, 100 seq., Chap. VI., 

134 seq., 150 seq., 162, 167, 

250 seq. 
Egoism, 90, 168. 
Ejaculatory duct, 271. 
Ellis, H., 226. 

Embryo, 135, 151 seq., 167, 273. 
Emission, 23, 61, 65, 261. 
Emotions, sex, 44, 92, 102, 

169,252. 
Employment, monotonous, 85. 
Employment of boys and girls, 

229 ; of married women, 229. 



INDEX 



321 



Ennui, 82, 91, 92, 94. 
Environment, 192, 194, 197, 

208, 209. 
Epilepsy, 197. 
Erotic thoughts, 72, 173, 174, 

175. 
Eugenic appeal, 230. 
Eugenic control of mentally 

deficient, 242. 
Eugenic ideal, 215. 
Eugenics, 193, 218. 
Eurasians, 209. 
Evolution, 36, 41, 158 seq., 

168, 192. 
Evolution of mother-love, 42. 
Evolution of sex, 110. 
Excretory functions, 55 , 59, 

69, 251. 
Expectant motherhood, 201, 

229. 
Eye-colour, inheritance of, 195. 

' Factor,' 156. 

Factory girls and men, 246. 

Family, 255. 

Fatherhood,90,101,124,253seq. 

Feeble-minded, 195, 196, 242. 

See Mental Deficiency. 
Feeding birds, 132,281. 
Female organism, 30, 36, 108. 
Female racial organs, 268 seq. 
Fertilisation, 104 seq., 167, 

256,258,271,273. 
Fertilisation in earthworms, 

snails, etc., Ill seq. 
Finn, Frank, 130. 
Fishes, 122 seq. 
Flower-bud, 17 seq., 104. 
Flower structure, 104 seq. 
Flowers, unisexual, 308 seq. 
Fly, 119, 298 seq. 
Fcerster, F. W., 171, 178. 
Foetus, 140, 141, 273. 
Fore-conscious, the, 33. 
Freud, Professor, 33. 
Friendship of older boys for 

younger, 66. 
21 



Friendship, sentimental, 32, 67, 

79. 
Frogs, 127, 283. 
Fucus, 311. 
Function, 192, 194, 208. 

Galton, Sir F., 218, 219. 

Games, 74. 

Gametes, 167. 

1 General Knowledge,' 218. 

Geneticists, 192. 

Geographical position and 

racial characteristics, 220. 
Geography, 218. 
Germ-cells, 199. See Gametes, 

Sperm, Egg. 
Germ-plasm, 18. 
Germination, 216. 
Gestation, 140, 272 seq., 277, 

278, 279. 
Girl Guides, 13, 86. 
Girls, ' Camp Fire,' 86. 
Girls, care of health, 61, 63 

seq., 264 seq. 
Girls' clubs, 88, 236. 
Girls compared with boys, 16, 

19, 27, 29, 31, 37, 78, 90. 
Girls, 'forward,' 81. 
Girls, maturity in, 27. 
Girls, physical exercise, 74, 77. 
Girls' professions, 228. 
Girls' sensitiveness, 214. 
Girls, training in reserve, 81. 
Girls, warning re social perils, 

94 seq. 
Glands, 20, 21. 
Goldfish, 122, 303. 
Gonococcus infection, 204, 217, 

228. 
Gonorrhoea, 204 seq. 
Graafian follicles, 267. 
Graham, Dr., 209. 
Gregarious instinct, 89. 
* Growing pains,' 62. 
Growth during childhood, 19. 
Growth during early adol- 
escence, 26, 27. 



322 



INDEX 



Growth in height, 19, 20. 
Guinea-pigs, 101, 142, 279. 
Gulick, Dr. Luther, 87. 
Gulls, 134. 

Habits in adolescence, 77 seq. 
Habits in childhood, 29, 51, 

56, 57 seq., 227 seq. 
Hair, pubic, 251. 261. 
Hall, Dr. Stanley, 24, 98, 99. 
Handwork, 225. 
Hazel, 108, 109, 308. 
Health Societies, 226. 
Heape, Walter, 77. 
Heredity,146seq., 155,192,193, 

197, 208 seq., 215 seq., 221/ 
Heredity, endowment, 48, 192. 
Hermaphrodite animals, 110. 
Hermaphrodite flowers, 108. 
Hibernation, 127, 280, 284. 
History, 182, 218 ; of French 

Canada, 218 seq., 221. 
Hobbies, 44. 
Hockey, 74. 

Holmes, Edmond, 1, 82, 90, 91. 
Home, the, and school, 8, 147 

seq., 177, 243. 
Home conditions, 82, 229, 239. 
Home Office, 2. 
Homo-sexual friendship, 79. 
Hop, 309. 

House-fly, 119, 298 seq. 
Housekeeping, 224. 
Howard, L. O., 299. 
Human characteristics, 194. 
Human reproduction, 268 seq. 
Hunger instinct, 93, 170. 
Hurst, Major, 195. 
Hybridisation, 153, 157. 
Hygiene, 146, 150, 216, 217, 

227 ; for girls, 264 seq. 
Hymen, 270. 

Imagination, 39 seq., 179 seq. 
Immorality, 231. 
Incompetent motherhood, 199. 
Incubation, 135, 254. 



Infancy, impressions, 58. See 

Freud. 
Infant, mental development,28. 
Infantile blindness, 205. 
Infatuations in school, 32,67,79. 
Infectious diseases, 204, 233. 
Inherent characters, 48. 
Insanity, 198. 
Instruction, forces for and 

against, 6, 7. 
Instructors, their equipment, 

6, 7, 15. 
Intemperance, 172. 
Internal secretion, 20, 21, 30, 

70, 83, 173, 271. 
Introspection. 43, 48. 

Kangaroo, 143. 
Kearton, Mr., 133. 
Key, Ellen, 188. 

Labia, 270. 

Labour, 274. 

Lactation, 273. 

Ladybirds, 121. 

Lamarckian theory, 164. 

Larva-house, 288 seq. 

Latent character, 155, 194. 

Law of the Camp Fire, 87. 

Law of Progress, 5. 

Lead- poisoning, 201. 

Leisure hours, 8, 84, 86, 91 seq., 

244 seq. 
Literature, 182, 218. 
Lock, R. H., 155, 163. 
Love, 41, 42, 93 seq., 90, 169, 

170,222. 
Love affairs, 80. 
Love, ideal of, 11, 186, 232, 256. 
Lyttelton, Canon, 236. 

McDougall, Wm., 48, 166. 
McKenzie, W. L„ 203. 
Male organism, 30, 36, 108. 
Male racial organs, 271 seq. 
Mammals, 138 seq., 162. 
Mammary glands, 268, 270. 



INDEX 



323 



Man, the highest develop- 
ments in, 5, 192 seq. 
Marriage, 170,187, 188, 228, 232. 
Marriage, thoughts of, 94, 96, 

187. 
Marshall, Professor, 207. 
Masturbation. See Self -abuse. 
Maternal instinct, 67, 212 seq. 
Maturity, 49, 94. 
Memory, 59. 

Mendel, 153 seq., 192, 194, 216. 
Mendelian inheritance, 155, 

195, 198. 
Mendel's theory, 156. 
Menopause, 27. 
Menstruation, 25, 61, 63, 258 

seq., 264 seq., 268 seq., 273. 
Mental deficiency, 195, 196 

seq., 241, 242. 
Mental Deficiency Act, 197. 
Mental development, 28 seq., 83. 
Mental hygiene, 84, 174, 179 seq. 
Mental ill -health, 102, 174. 
Mental life, 48. 
Mental weakness and puberty, 

66. 
Mice, 101, 142, 278. 
Milk-glands, 268, 270. 
Minnows, 124, 304. 
Mjoen, Dr., 199. 200. 
Modesty, 259. 
Modifications, 164. 
Monoecious plants, 308. 
Montessori, 57. 
Moral conduct, reasoning basis 

for, 38. 
Moral stamina, 84. 
Moral training, 145, 171, 173seq. 
Morbidity, 43, 181. 
Moth, 121, 288 seq. 
Mothercraft, 223 seq. 
Motherhood, 77, 90, 100 seq., 

142, 187, 208, 247 seq. 
Mother's privilege, 59 soq., 

243, 247 seq. 
Moulds, 149, 305 seq. 
Moulting. 117, 119. 



| Mumford, Mrs., 181. 

< Muscles, abdominal, 74, 75. 

Muscular training of girls, 77. 
i Museums, 137, 142 seq., 156. 

i 

I Natural History Museum, 137, 

142 seq., 156. 
I Natural selection, 161, 163. 
j ' Nature,' 194. 

I Nature study, methods, 144 seq . 
! Nervous energy, 51, 262. 

Nervous system and racial 
organs, 47. 

Nettle (stinging), 309. 

Neurosis, 102. 

Neurotic children, 181. 

Newman, Sir Geo., 226. 

Newt, 41, 129. 

' Nurture,' 194. 

Oak, 108, 308. 

Offspring and parental care, 

139. 
Oliver, Sir T., 202. 
Opossum, 143. 

Organic life, beginnings, 159. 
Organism, trustee of life, 5, 261 . 
Origin of Species, 1 6 1 , 1 63 . 
Ovaries, 18, 20, 22, 24, 105 seq., 

125, 127, 134, 140, 268 seq. 
Overwork, 77, 265. 
Oviduct, 268 seq., 272. 
Ovum, 30, 167, 268, 310. 
Ovulation, 268. 

Parent, work, 14, 60, 96, 148, 

235. 
Parent-substitute, 14. 
Parental care and offspring, 

139, 254 seq. 
Parental instinct, 212, 214. 
Parenteral, 225. 
Parenthood, Chaps. IX., X., 94, 

96, 102 seq., 214, 232. 
Parenthood in animals, Chap. 

VI., 212. 
Parturition, 271, 274 r 



324 



INDEX 



Patriotism, 230. 
Pearson, Karl, 196. 
Periodicity in boys, 61 . 
Periodicity in girls, 25. 
Perversion of sex instinct. 67, 80. 
Physical exercise, 74, 78. 
Physical habits, 51, 57. 
Physiologic habits, 77, 267. 
Physiology, 146, 150, 216 ; of 

human reproduction, 268 seq. 
Pirquet, von, 198, 203. 
Pituitary body, 20. 
Placenta, 140, 273, 274. 
Playmates, 8. 
Poetry, 185. 
Pollen, 105. 

Pollination. 106-108 seq. 
Poplar, 307. 
Poppy, 104, 146, 249. 
Precocity, 80. 
Prefects, 178. 

Prepubescent period, 35, 66. 
Prevention of cruelty to 

children, 201, 240. ^ 
Pritchard, Dr., 225. 
Prostitution, 95, 207, 234, 

237 seq., 245. 
Psychology of childhood, Chap. 

III., 166, 213. 
Psychology of infancy, 28. 
Puberal development, 17. 
Puberal development in girls, 

24 seq., 60 seq. 
Puberty, approach of, 19, 35, 

36, 62 ; forewarning re, 

257 seq., 264. 
Puberty in boys, 61, 62, 65; 

forewarning, 260 seq. 
Puberty, wrong time to give 

sex instruction, 103. 
Punnett, Professor, 156. 
Pupa. See Chrysalis. 
Pupa house, 291 . 

Quacks, 208. 

Questions, childish, 98 r 144, 
166, 247 seq. 



' Quickening,' 273. 

Rabbits, 142. 

Race culture, 222. 

Racial characteristics, associ- 
ated with geographical posi- 
tion, 220. 

Racial instinct, 35, 36, 37, 80, 
93 seq., 124, 208, 214. See 
also Sex Instinct. 

Racial organs, 20, 268. 

Racial organs and nervous 
system, 47. 

Racial organs as emotional 
glands, 46. 

Racial organs, cleanliness of, 
52 seq., 264. 

Racial organs, reproductive 
function of, 23, 268 seq. 

Racial poisons, 199 seq. 

Racial process, 5, 97, 104, 145. 

Rats, 101, 142, 275. 

Recessive, 154, 195, 197, 216. 

Red campion, 108 seq., 215, 
309. 

Religious appeal, 178. 

Religious doubts, 38. 

Repression, 34, 58, 102. 

Reproduction, 5, 23, 103, 
166 seq. 

Reproduction costly to the 
individual, 35. 

Reproduction, human, 268 seq. 

Reserve, training in, 259. 

Reservoirs, seminal, 271. 

Roberts, Lord, 172. 

Rossetti, 165. 

Royal Commission, 204, 205, 
207. 

Ruskin, John, 79. 

Safeguarding youth, 91, 207, 

217. 
Saleeby, Dr., 74, 199, 200. 
Salmon, 42, 124. 
Sandiford, P., 179. 
Saprolegnia, 304. 



INDEX 



325 



School and home, 8, 147 seq., 

177, 243. 
School, continuation, 211 seq. 
School, cultivation of interests, 

92. 
School doctor, 235. 
School, elementary, 211, 223. 
School, leaving age, 211. 
Schwarmerei, 67, 79. 
Seaweeds, 150, 310 seq. 
Secondary sexual characters, 

20, 22, 37, 78. 
Seed-making, 104 seq., 253 seq. 
Seeds, 100, 149, 216, 248, 249, 

307. 
Selection, 161. 
Self-abuse in infancy. 52 seq., 

66. 
Self-abuse in puberty, 66 seq., 

68 seq., 85, 169, 176 seq., 

265. 
Self-abuse, warn against, 73, 

260 seq. 
Self-control, 56 seq., 72, 95, 

169, 170 seq., 243. 
Self -discipline, 172, 175. 
Self -education, 58. 
Self-expression, 78, 222 seq. 
Self-realisation, 76, 86. 
Self-reliance, 57. 
Selflessness, 215. 
Semen, 23, 65, 261, 271. 
Seminal vesicles, 271, 301. 
Senescence, 27. 
Sensual thoughts, 175. 
Sentiment, growth of, in adol- 
escence, 39. 
Sentimentalism, 43, 67, 79. 
Servants, untrustworthy, 54, 

241. 
Seton, Ernest Thompson, 133. 
Sex attraction, Law of, 11, 222. 
Sex desire, 167 seq. 
Sex development, 80. 
Sex, device of, 5. 
Sex differentiation, 78. 
Sex education, indirect, 93, 173. 



Sex education in relation to de- 
velopment, 17. 
Sex emotions, 44 seq., 92, 102, 

169, 252. 
vSex energy, 72, 78, 83, 84. 
Sex hunger, 37, 80, 244. 
Sex hygiene, 165, 232, 236; 

instruction in, age for, 234. 
Sex impulse, awakening, 38, 80. 
Sex impulse, control, 44, 170. 
Sex instinct, 67, 80. 
Sex instruction, negative, 4, 14. 
Sex instruction, positive, 4, 

9, 10, 11, 14,231. 
Sex intercourse, 256. 
Sex phenomena, in infancy, 29. 
Shelley, 177. 
Silkworms, 293. 
Skeletal development, 27. 
Slugs, 110, 115, 295 seq. 
Slums, girl of, 14. 
Snails, 110, 113 seq., 293 seq. 
Social conditions, 231. 
Social conduct, 168. 
Social consciousness, 92. 
Social diseases, 95, 173, 204 

seq., 217, 232 seq. 
Social instincts, 76. 
Social service, 89 seq. 
Social workers, 13. 
Soma, somatic growth, 18. 
Song of birds, 131 seq. 
Sparrow, 131. 

Sperm, 30, 106, 167, 256, 310. 
Spermatic fluid, 23, 272. See 

Semen. 
Spider, 41, 115 seq., 283 seq. 
Spinal curvature, 74. 
Spiny ant-eater, 143. 
Stephens, Margaret, 96, 274. 
Stick insects, 250, 294. 
Sticklebacks, 123, 144, 304. 
Still, Dr., 53, 206. 
Sublimation of energy, 34, 44, 

47,56,78,83,93,171. 
Supervision of child-life, 50 

seq. 



326 



INDEX 



Swimming, 75, 186. 
Syphilis, 204 seq., 217, 228. 

Tadpole, 128 seq., 285, 304. 
Temperament, 48, 83. 
Testes, 271. 
Thomson, J. A., 155, 161, 164, 

192. 
Thrush, 133. 
Thyroid gland, 20. 
Tiger, 158. 
Toad, 129, 283. 
Toilet requisites, 58. 
Transmission of life, story of, 

59. See Appendix I. 
Tredgold, Dr., 196. 
Tuberculosis, 198, 202 seq., 

204, 216, 217, 227, 228, 234. 
Tulip, 104, 106 seq., Ill, 255. 

Unconscious, the, 33, 102. 

See Repression. 
Undifferentiated sex impulse, 

32. 
Unisexual flowers, 108, 308 seq. 
Uterus, 18, 24, 140, 252, 257 

seq., 268 seq. 

Vagina, 141, 268 seq. 
Vallisneria, 303, 309. 
Variability, 160. 



Variations, 160, 163, 210. 
Venereal diseases, 204, 232, 

243. See Social Diseases. 
Vice, 231. 
Vivarium, 283. 
Voice * breaking,' 19, 65. 

Watch Committee, 245. 
Water-beetles, 304. 
Water- boatman, 304. 
Water-flea, 151 seq. 
Water-fungus, 304. 
Water-plants, 302 seq. 
Water-snails, 110, 112 seq., 137, 

146, 151, 304. 
Webb, Sidney, 196. 
Welton, Professor, 179. 
Whetham, Mr. and Mrs., 197, 

219, 224. 
White, Dr. Douglas, 204. 
Willow, 108, 109, 308. 
Wilson, Dr. Helen, 237, 244. 

Young, Dr. Evangeline, 239, 
240. 

Youthhood, 16, 47. See Ado- 
lescence. 

Youths and eroticism, 174. 

Zoo, 143. 
Zoology, 150. 



